Sell paid subscriptions

How-to guide

For:: Publishers and marketers
Needs permission:: earn:editsensitive
In the app:: Earn, then Plans & offers

Set up paid newsletter subscriptions by creating tiers readers pay for, publishing the hosted upgrade page and marking which content is for paid members only. Readers pay on Stripe Checkout, and their paid status decides what they can read.

Before you begin

Connect Stripe. Start with a test key to try every page without charging anyone.
You need earn:edit (sensitive) to change tiers, prices and the upgrade page.
Decide which lists paid members join. A tier adds its members to the lists you pick (Lists, consent and double opt-in).

Create a tier

Open Earn, then Plans & offers and select New tier.
Name the tier and list its benefits. Readers see both on the upgrade page.
Set a monthly price, a yearly price or both, in the currency you chose when you connected Stripe.
Choose a trial: None, 7, 14 or 30 days. A trial is offered only to people who haven’t had one.
Under Lists and access, pick the lists paid members join (their consent is recorded as “Paid subscription”) and the access rank. A tier includes the paid content of every tier of a lower rank.
Choose the visibility: Public (on the upgrade page, after the Free card), Hidden (only through its own link) or Archived (no new paid members; current ones keep paying). You can highlight one tier on the upgrade page with a label such as “Most popular”.
Save. Each tier is a product in your Stripe account. You can draft tiers before Stripe is connected; publishing them needs Stripe.

Edit the upgrade page

In Earn, then Plans & offers, select Edit the upgrade page.
Write the headline and intro, order the tiers and choose the default period (monthly or yearly).
Pick a highlighted tier and its label, edit the free card and the FAQ.
Use Preview as to see the page as an anonymous visitor or another reader, on desktop or mobile.
Select Preview with test checkout to run a checkout with Stripe’s test cards.
Select Save and publish.

The upgrade page lives on your public pages (and your own domain, if you set one up in Brand your pages and use your own domain). The cancel and gift pages are edited in Earn, then Settings, then Pages.

Make content paid-only

A block in an email or post: in the composer, set the block’s visibility to Paid access. Free readers get the rest of the email.
A whole campaign: choose who on the list gets it: Everyone, Paid members only or Free subscribers only.
An invitation to pay: add the Upgrade block. It links to the upgrade page.
Personal details: use the Liquid tokens paid.tier, paid.status, paid.price, paid.renews_at and paid.ends_at (Personalize emails with Liquid).
Website posts: set a post’s visibility to Paid (Publish a newsletter website).

Turn on member emails

Eight member emails go out automatically once you publish their transactional templates in Earn, then Settings, then Member emails:

Email	When
Welcome to a paid tier	When a trial or paid subscription starts
Trial ends soon	3 days before a trial ends
Payment failed	Stripe couldn’t charge the card
Renewal reminder	7 days before a yearly renewal
Membership canceled	When a cancellation is confirmed
Gift receipt	When a gift is bought
Your gift	On the gift’s delivery date
Gift ending	7 days before a gift ends

An unpublished template means that email is not sent; Earn’s Overview lists it under the items that need you.

Check that it worked

On the upgrade page, run a test checkout. The test reader appears in Earn, then Paid members with the Test label once you turn on Show test data.
Send yourself a test of a campaign with a Paid access block, using Preview as with a paid and a free contact.

Troubleshooting

The tier is missing from the upgrade page → its visibility is Hidden or Archived, or it is unticked in Tiers and their order.
The currency can’t be changed → it is fixed once a tier has prices.
No welcome email arrives → publish its template in Earn, then Settings, then Member emails.