General Web Design question about a Subscription based website

[Bassman]

Hello,

I have had an iquiry about building a site in which the customers would pay a subscription fee each month to watch instructional content.

Just thought I would ask opinions on how to best setup this up using WD6? I would think this would entail a unique password per customer which would be retained with each months payment. Would this be server side or made in Xara?

Basically a lot of the site will be behind a curtain. So am I correct in thinking to design the entire site and just add the pay/password barriers?

Thanks for your input.

[scruffy.thedog]

Hi
what i do is use coffee cup site access manager to do the site protection via a password its about $40 and a few clicks changes permission at the server - many posts here about it u can trail it for 30 days free. you can create diretectories access so even the old customers can see the old content they have paid for but not the new if you want. personally i protect at the root so no money = no access

each month mail out to clients the new content listing via a email mail out programme ( e.g icontact) with the new months login details.everyone the same login . delete the previous months password so those that opt out or finish their subscription dont get the new content

simple - just need to keep an eye on who has paid up .....excel spread sheet with subscription end date date and bank payments! if its per month subscription you may get the odd one get the stuff for one more month but thats about it.

Scruffy

[w00dy]

I'd go with that Scruffy. CC Access Manager remains totally separate from what you're doing in Xara and I can stand trolling through a spreadsheet to check if they've paid up if it means someone is giving me money!

[scruffy.thedog]

too right woody show me the money!

[Bassman]

Thanks for your input. Sounds like a great approach. I need to sort out if the client wants people to have one password for the length of their membership or like you said to rotate a single access given by e-mail.

Is it possible to use unique passowrds that would stay with the user?

[pauland]

Make sure that you are not liable for any problems with the scheme that you choose - you don't want to be liable if people gain access to content by bypassing the login system.

Depending on the number of clients and the way that users and passwords are handled, this can be quite a complex thing to handle. For example, if people can choose usernames and passwords, they can also forget them and need to change them. With ten users you could do it by hand. With 1,000 you'd need automated support.

[Bassman]

Good advice. I will write that into the contract. The more I think about it the password of the month approach seems like the method with the least hassles.