Multiple combos of free and paid memberships

So what I am trying to do is allow customers to register for different free levels which they could upgrade to the paid level associated with the free level. So:

Level 0 (free level 1) > Level 1 (paid)

Level 2 (free level 2) > Level 3 (paid)

From searching the site and watching the tutorials, I have gathered this is done through custom capabilities. However, I watched all the custom capabilities videos and those pertain more to content and creating different variations of the same level.

What I need to do is a customer register for free for a specific program they will be enrolling in. Then they can log back in and pay for that program. Which would be the step up from the free level to the paid level.

Thanks!

Thank you for your inquiry.

s2Member’s Levels are incremental, meaning that a User at s2Member Level 2 would have access to anything protected at s2Member Level 1, or s2Member Level 0. s2Member’s Custom Capabilities, however, are not this way. You can sell Custom Capabilities separately to any level. It is for this reason when a User wants two different groups of Users we recommend Custom Capabilities.

See: Video » s2Member (Custom Capabilities)

The way I’d recommend handling this is to provide two different Free Registration Forms. One form with a Custom Capability for one group of Users, and the other with a different Custom Capability. Then you can have two Pro Forms (that are paid) and these Users can upgrade with depending on which Custom Capability they have.

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Free Registration Forms

You can use s2Member’s Shortcode Conditionals to decide which paid Pro Form they should see.

See: Knowledge Base » Simple Shortcode Conditionals

What you protect with these Membership Levels / Custom Capabilities is up to you. You can see all the ways you can use Custom Capabilities within your Restriction Options.

Dashboard -› s2Member® -› Restriction Options

I am using authorize.net so the multiple free paypal forms won’t do the trick for me.

The reason custom capabilities doesn’t make sense here is that I am not restricting content or pages. I just want to have different combinations of member levels not custom capabilities.

What I need to do is:

– not have incremental levels so level 3 doesn’t get access to 0,1,2. Just 3 itself
– Have multiple free levels with authorize.net forms
– each free level will have an associated paid level.

The 2 associated levels (1 free, 1 paid) should be associated with each other but mutually exclusive of all other 2 level combinations.

Please advise. Thanks,

– not have incremental levels so level 3 doesn’t get access to 0,1,2. Just 3 itself

You can do this using conditionals in the content itself insted of an access restriction that protects the whole page. [hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› API / Scripting -› Conditionals[/hilite]

Or you can edit the s2Member level roles, removing the capabilities to access the lower levels.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/user-role-editor/
Knowledge Base » Locking s2Member Roles/Capabilities

– Have multiple free levels with authorize.net forms

You can do it with the free registration pro-form. Video » s2Member (Free Registration On Multiple Levels?)

The free registration will happen only once, if the user is registered. To change from one level to the next free, you’ll need a hack that uses some PHP change the role. Knowledge Base » Changing Roles/Capabilities via PHP

– each free level will have an associated paid level.

The 2 associated levels (1 free, 1 paid) should be associated with each other but mutually exclusive of all other 2 level combinations.

You can have a free registration pro-form to register at each those free levels, and a pro-form to pay each as well.

You could also, if not selling subscriptions (recurring), but a single payment without a trial (buy now), you could sell a custom capability for the paid access.
Video » s2Member (Custom Capabilities)
[hilite path]Dashboard -› s2Member® -› PayPal® Pro Forms -› Capability (Buy Now) Forms[/hilite]