This guide will give you all the resources you need to get your MemberMouse site up and running from start to finish. You'll find information on everything from checking your system compatibility before installing to testing your setup before going live. Depending on how you are starting out with MemberMouse, you may not need to go through every step, but this article provides a reference you can come back to for information as you go along. You can click any link in the descriptions to open the full article in a new window.
Installation
If you do not already have WordPress installed:
MemberMouse is a plugin that works with the WordPress platform. In order to install MemberMouse you must have the WordPress available at WordPress.org installed on a compatible Hosting Provider. Please note that this is different from the version of WordPress found at WordPress.com. The version of WordPress hosted at WordPress.com is a multisite based on a single main installation and limits the themes and plugins that can be used. MemberMouse is not compatible with WordPress.com or other multisite installations. Before you install WordPress, you may want to check our WordPress Compatibility article to see the newest version that has been fully tested with MemberMouse. Then visit the WordPress Versions article (newer versions toward the bottom) to download the version listed.
If you already have WordPress installed:
1. Check the WordPress Compatibility article for the newest supported version. If your current version is newer than the version listed here, that does not necessarily mean that you will encounter issues. MemberMouse does exhaustive testing of each new version of WordPress and our plugin. It may just mean we have not completed testing yet. If you have concerns, feel free to contact our Support Team for more specific information.
2. Check the Release Notes article for the most recent version of MemberMouse. It may have important information about plugin compatibility and new features. This article also contains new release announcements and file downloads for supported versions.
4. Install MemberMouse to your WordPress installation by going to Plugins > All Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin > and upload the plugin you downloaded from your MemberMouse Dashboard or the plugin Download Link.
Member Migration
If you are starting with a brand new website, you can skip this section.
Otherwise, you can find our full Migration Guide in the Guides & Best Practices folder. Our Migration Guide covers: things to consider before migrating, how to migrate existing WordPress users into MemberMouse, the process for migrating from an another membership solution, and suggestions on how to handle existing paid subscriptions. There is also an FAQ section at the end of the Migration Guide.
Basic Setup
Here is a bit of information that might help make it easier to get started with the terms and setup. There are three major parts to setting up items for paid or free access in MemberMouse. Products are like price tags; they set the payment terms for an item like price, subscription options, and trial options. Each one of those can be added to a Membership Level, which defines the basic access rights for a member, or a Bundle which is an add-on. Users can only be on one membership level at a time, so sometimes it is better to create some items or group of related items as bundles to add on to the user's current membership level.
Like physical price tags, products can only be added to one item at a time, but an item can have an infinite number of products attached to it. Each product will have a separate purchase link that you can use, which will direct users to the Checkout Core Page, or you can Create a Custom Checkout page and modify the link to redirect users there instead.
Once the order is complete, users will be directed to the Confirmation Core Page, or if you'd like, you can Create Product Specific Confirmation Pages to customize the after sale page by product. You can leave the confirmation page template as is, or add in items like 1-Click Purchase Links (when using a on-site Payment Method) for instant upsells, or links to direct users to their newly purchased content.
For more in-depth information and step by step walkthroughs, check out the Collecting Members and Money section of our MemberMouse Best Practices, as well as our Video Tutorials: Master the Essentials of MemberMouse which can be found in the Guides & Best Practices folder.
Customizing MemberMouse
MemberMouse is designed to be a highly extensible and robust plugin, that functions as part content-protection system and part CRM. Because of this unparalleled flexibility to display dynamic content you are afforded the ability to be creative and customize your website and sales process in ways that other membership plugins and CRM platforms simply can't match. But there is always the possibility that your site has specific needs or requirements that fall outside of the general functionality of MemberMouse 'out of the box'. It might be stylistic issues, 3rd party vendor integrations, or custom functionality added to your site. For more information, check out our Customizing MemberMouse article, or click one of the links below to go directly to that section.
Testing
MemberMouse has testing methods available for most processes to make sure your site is functioning the way you want it before going live. Below are the instruction guides for various process testing. We suggest starting with the Testing section of our MemberMouse Best Practices.
Specific Payment Method Testing:
- Speed Up Testing Using Test Data
- Using the Test Payment Service
- Testing with PayPal
- Testing with Stripe
- Testing with Authorize.net Test Gateway