Set up member areas and create pages that only visitors with a membership can access.
After you enable Member Areas for your site, a new navigation section in your Pages panel appears for Member Areas. If you’ve already subscribed to Member Areas, you can create member areas in this section until you reach the limit for your pricing plan. Any pages added to these member areas will be gated, and only members who created an account and sign up for a membership to that area can access the content.
Tip: It's free to enable and build member areas, but you’ll need to choose a pricing plan and subscribe to Member Areas before your site visitors can sign up for memberships.
Create a member area
To create a new member area:
- Open the Pages panel.
- Click the + icon next to the Member Areas section to enter the member areas creation screen. If this section doesn't appear in the Pages panel, ensure Member Areas are enabled on your site.
- Name your member area.
- Set your membership pricing to make your member area available for a recurring subscription, a fixed amount, or free.
- Click Done.
Tip: You must have Administrator or Website Editor site permissions to create new member areas.
Selling video on demand
If you click the + icon on your store page or inventory panel, you can select Video on Demand from the options provided. A pop-up then guides you through the process of creating a videos page and adding it to a member area. This is an alternate way to begin the member area set-up process. It focuses on offering your members video content.
The Video on Demand option is only available on version 7.1 sites. To add gated videos to your version 7.0 site, create a gallery page with your videos inside your member area.
Member area settings
After you create a member area, it'll appear beneath the Member Areas section in the Pages panel. To open a member area’s settings, hover over the member area title and click 
.
Here are some of the settings you can change:
- Name - This name appears as the title of a member area in the Pages panel, member sign up blocks, and the window new members use to sign up for a membership.
- Description - This description appears in the member sign up block for visitors to review before signing up for a membership, and in the Membership Summary at checkout.
- Membership pricing - Under Pricing, change your membership pricing amount and frequency. Any changes made to a member area's recurring subscription membership cost will only affect new members.
- Access denied screen -Click ..., then click Edit Access Denied Screen to customize the page that appears to visitors if they try to access content in a member area they don't have a membership to.
- Global settings - Click ..., then click Manage global settings for a shortcut to the Member Areas panel.
Add content to a member area
After creating a member area in the Pages panel, you can add members-only pages beneath it. Create content such as classes, workshops, or video libraries for different communities and skill levels. Only visitors who sign up for a membership to that member area can view those pages.
Tip: Use Scheduling or service products for classes or workshops to increase your revenue, or add a videos page to a member area to create a gated video library. Create professional quality videos with the Video Studio app, and embed them to a Videos page.
Pages in a member area don't have SEO options and aren't indexed in your site map. This keeps them hidden from search results to maintain the exclusivity of members-only content.
To add a page to a member area:
- Open the Pages panel.
- Under Member Areas, locate the appropriate member area, then click Add page.
- Select a layout option from the Pages menu.
- Enter a page title in the text field and press Enter.
Tip: The first page added to a member area automatically becomes that member area’s homepage.
You can also drag and drop an existing page into the Member Areas section of the Pages panel. When you move a page into a member area, the page’s SEO options and passwords are deactivated, and its URL is removed from your site map. If you move the page back out of your member area, these settings are automatically reinstated.
Tip: Each page can only be in a single member area. To include the same page of content in two or more members areas, duplicate the page and drag it into the other member area.
Navigation links
In addition to pages, you can also add links to your member navigation. Use this option to link your members out to external sources, such as a members-only forum or Facebook page.
If you've chosen to replace your site navigation with the member navigation (version 7.1 only), you may want to add navigation links to pages on your public site in the member navigation. This helps members find your public content, even when logged into their customer account.
Page limits
There's no official limit to the number of pages you can add to a member area. Depending on how you've set up your member navigation, however, you may want to minimize the number of pages in your member areas. If your member navigation replaces your main site navigation, for example, hovering over the member area's name in the navigation bar reveals a list of all the pages in that member area. When a member area contains a large number of pages, that list is long and could overwhelm your visitors.
If you do add a lot of pages in a single member area, we recommend setting your member navigation to Don't show navigation and creating a custom member navigation on the member area's homepage.
Note: Member areas don’t support folders.
Promote member areas on your site
Use member sign up blocks to promote member areas on a page, blog post, or other content area on your main site. Learn more about how to add and customize these blocks, visit member sign up blocks.
We recommend creating a public page on your site that includes member sign up blocks for each member area you offer. This allows visitors to compare and contrast all member areas and sign up for the most appropriate membership all in one place. Create your own or use one of our professionally designed Member Areas page layouts.
Preview gated content
You can use summary blocks and content link blocks to preview gated content from one of your member areas on your main site. When visitors click the previewed content in these blocks, they'll be taken to that member area's access denied screen, where they can log in or sign up for a membership.
If you have a store page in one of your member areas, you can use product blocks on your main site to advertise products from that store. Visitors can then use these blocks to purchase the featured products from your gated store without signing up for a membership.
Protect member area content
When a visitor who hasn’t signed up for a membership tries to view pages in a member area, they'll encounter an access denied screen. They’ll be prompted to create a customer account and pay any membership costs so they can access the member area’s gated content.
Keep in mind, we can’t guarantee the security of content in your members-only pages once members have access to them. It's not possible to completely prevent someone from copying members-only text, images, audio, or file URLs from your site and sharing them with non-members. There are several approaches you can take to protect your content and discourage unlawful copying. Learn more in Preventing visitors from downloading your images, videos, and audio.
Delete member areas
If you decide to no longer offer gated content on your site, you can delete your member area.