How to Set Up WordPress Content Locking or Gated Contents

Would you like to incorporate content locking into your WordPress site? Content locking offers a great way to monetize your website. If you're interested in learning how to add content locking to your WordPress site, continue reading for a step-by-step guide.

How to Add Content Locking or Gated Content in WordPress

Before we delve deeper, let's explore why incorporating content locking is a smart decision.

How to Add Content Locking in WordPress

Why You Should Add Content Locking in WordPress

Content locking can be beneficial in various scenarios, particularly when you offer premium tutorials or articles. Here are some ideal situations for utilizing content locking:

1. Running a magazine: If you operate an online magazine and wish to introduce a subscription service, content locking can restrict access to blog posts, allowing only premium members to read them.

2. Promoting a discount: Offering exclusive discounts to paid members? Content locking ensures that only those members can access the deals, preventing regular readers from accessing them.

3. Lead generation: Content locking can aid in generating leads from your website.

4. Monetization: If you're not using display ads such as Google AdSense to monetize your content, content locking provides an excellent alternative for profiting from your WordPress blog.


Now that you understand when to employ content locking, let's proceed to the core of the article, where we'll provide a step-by-step guide on implementing content locking on WordPress.

How to Add Content Locking in WordPress

For this tutorial, we'll utilize the Paid Membership Subscriptions plugin. It's a freemium plugin, and we'll be using the free version. Begin by installing and activating the plugin on your WordPress website.

How to Add Content Locking in WordPress

After activating the plugin, you'll encounter the initial configuration wizard.

Configuring the Options

Firstly, you need to select pages for the registration, login, account, and forgot password sections.

Next, select the design for the page.

In the third step, you'll be able to configure the currency options.


As depicted in this screenshot, the plugin offers integration with Stripe and PayPal, or you can opt for manual payment collection. Depending on your preferences, configure this accordingly. Once you've set up the payment data, proceed to complete the setup.

Now that you've configured the payment gateway and enabled customers to make payments, the next step is to create a subscription plan for the members. This is an essential task you should undertake.

Creating New Subscription Plans

To accomplish this, navigate to the subscription plans settings.


From there, you can add new plans.


The configuration options available in the plan are:

  • Plan Name
  • Description
  • Duration
  • Price
  • Sign up fee
  • Free trial
  • Renewal
  • Status
  • User role


Customize these options according to your preferences and then publish the plan. Following that, you can initiate content restriction. Open the post/page or custom post type to enable content restriction. As you scroll down to the bottom, you'll find the content restriction options.


Adjust the options based on your preferences.


After making the modifications to the post settings, publish (or update) the article.

Testing the Restriction

Afterward, you can check the post from the front end. When logged in as an admin or as a gold member, you will see this message:

How to Add Content Locking or Gated Content in WordPress 

This is how you can implement content locking in WordPress. By adding this feature to your WordPress website, only selected individuals with membership access can view the content. Charging them on a monthly or weekly basis for membership is an excellent method to generate revenue online with WordPress.