You can sell a course or a library of lessons with EverWeb Membership Sites. Students sign up, pay once or every month by card through Stripe, log in and see the lesson pages for their level. Videos and files need some care, because Membership Sites protects pages, not files.
Plan the course
- A public page about the course, outside your members' area: what students learn, the number of lessons, the price, and a Join button that links to your Sign Up page.
- A directory for each course. Click Add Directory in the toolbar and name it after the course. Inside it, add a course home page that links to every lesson, and a page for each lesson.
- Protect every lesson page. Protection is set page by page, so a page inside a directory isn't protected until you tick its levels. Select the page, go to Inspector > Page Settings > Password Protection, click Memberships, choose your license, and tick the levels that may see it.
- Untick Include in Site Search on each lesson page, in Inspector > Page Settings. Otherwise your lessons' text is added to your website's search data, which anyone can see.
For the pages every members' area needs (Sign Up, Payment, Login and so on), see Build your members area in EverWeb: the Membership widgets, the pages you need and Membership Site Settings.
Choose your levels
| You want to offer | Payment Schedule | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| One course, paid once | One time | Nothing to renew |
| A lesson library | Monthly or Yearly | A member who misses a payment is suspended automatically |
| A free taster | Free (Plus or Deluxe) | Free members confirm their email address before members' pages open |
| A free trial | A paid schedule with Trial period (0 - no trial) in days (Plus or Deluxe) | Sign up as a test member to see what a trial student sees before you advertise it |
The simplest taster needs no level: make the first lesson a public page. A Free level is useful when you want students' email addresses.
Each student has one level at a time. If you sell several courses, make a level for each, plus a bundle level (such as All Courses) ticked on every course's pages. Students can't change their own level or cancel by themselves, so add a request form with the Contact Form Advanced widget, then change their level on the Members screen.
For every level setting, see Plan your membership levels: free, one-time, monthly or yearly, trials, setup fees and coupons.
Put videos on lesson pages
Add a shape and set its Fill to Video in Inspector > Shape Options (full steps: How do I add a video, a background video or music to my EverWeb website?). Only members see the lesson page, but the video is only as private as the place it's stored:
| Video source | Who can watch it |
|---|---|
| YouTube Video, set to Unlisted | Anyone who has the video's link. It doesn't show in YouTube's search. A Private YouTube video won't play for your students |
| Vimeo Video, with Vimeo's privacy settings | Vimeo can hide a video from its own site, and on some Vimeo plans it can play only on the domains you choose, so it plays only on your website. Check Vimeo's current plans |
| Local Video File (your own file) | Anyone who has the file's direct link. Each view also uses your hosting's bandwidth |
For paid lessons, Vimeo with your domain allowed is the strongest of these.
PDFs, worksheets and audio
A file on a page (a PDF, an MP3 in the Audio widget, a picture) is published as a normal file on your website. Only members see the link, but anyone who has it can open the file without logging in, and a student can pass it on. To reduce this:
- Link to files only from members' pages, never from public pages or blog posts.
- Put the important teaching on the page as text. Only members can open the page.
- Add "For students of [your course]. Please don't share." to each PDF.
- Use file names that are hard to guess, such as
lesson-3-x7k2.pdf. Rename the file on your computer before you add it. - To sell a file that mustn't be passed around, such as an ebook, use a download service. See Sell products or digital downloads on your EverWeb website: which option to use.
Release a new lesson each week
There's no automatic timed release. A protected page opens for every member whose level is ticked as soon as it's published. To release a lesson:
- Right-click a lesson page in the course directory, choose Duplicate, and change the content.
- In Password Protection, check the right levels are ticked.
- Link to it from the course home page.
- Go to File > Publish Entire Site.
- Optional (Plus or Deluxe): on the Members screen, tick your students and click Mailing to tell them.
Unfinished lessons in your project go online too when you publish. To prepare a lesson early, right-click it in the page list and choose Do Not Publish (in EverWeb 4.6 and later, untick Publish This Page), then turn it back on and publish on release day. See Organise your pages: sub-pages and directories, changing your home page, and Do Not Publish.
Group classes and one-to-one students
- Groups: make a level for each class. Everyone at a level sees the same pages.
- A private page for one student needs a level of its own, which works for a handful of students. For more, Simple Password on EverWeb + Hosting gives each student a password-protected directory. See Can I password protect my website? Simple Password and Membership Sites.
- Students who pay you another way: make a Free level (Plus or Deluxe), set Active to No, do not accept new members so it isn't offered on your Sign Up page, and add each student with Add New on the Members screen.
For bookings and placement tests, see Build a website for your tutoring, coaching or classes with EverWeb.
Related articles
- Build a website for your tutoring, coaching or classes with EverWeb
- Members-only pages, logins and paid subscriptions: EverWeb Membership Sites
- Choose which pages members can see: protect pages and directories by membership level
- What can you build with a membership site? Ideas and examples for teachers, schools, coaches, trainers, clubs and creators
- How do I add a video, a background video or music to my EverWeb website?