Sell single articles on WordPress with Shopify

Some readers will pay for one story but never for a subscription. With RedeemID, a single post can be sold on its own as a Shopify product, beside the memberships that already open it. The buyer pays at Shopify checkout, Shopify Flow gives them the post’s customer tag, and that tag opens the post for them on WordPress. Nothing about the sale is kept in WordPress.

1. Create the product in Shopify

Create a product for the article, for example The harbour inquiry, with its price. Set it as a non-physical product with no shipping. Note its handle (the last part of its store address), because WordPress needs it.

2. Give the post its tag and product

In WordPress, open the post and find Who can read this. Under Sold on its own:

1. Tag: a customer tag only this post uses, such as item-harbour-inquiry.
2. Product: the product’s handle or its store link.

The post keeps its usual rule. A post that needs Gold still opens for Gold members, and now it also opens for anyone with its tag. The box says so: “Right now: readers need Gold, or buyers of this item”. Quick Edit and Bulk Edit on the post list have the same two fields. See Selling one post on its own.

3. Tag buyers with one Flow workflow

One workflow can cover every article you sell this way:

1. In Shopify, add a product metafield definition redeemid.unlock_tag (single line text). On each article’s product, set it to the same tag as in WordPress.
2. Create a Flow workflow with the trigger Order paid.
3. For each line item in the order, check that the product’s redeemid.unlock_tag metafield isn’t empty.
4. Add customer tags with the metafield’s value, picked from Flow’s variable picker.

Add a second workflow that removes the tag on Order cancelled or Refund created, if a refund should take the article back. The full recipe is in One article on its own.

What a reader sees

A reader who can’t open the post gets its teaser and the usual panel to sign in, join or upgrade. Beside that offer is a Buy just this button with the product’s price, which goes straight to Shopify checkout. A buyer who was signed in comes back to the post, and it opens when Shopify’s tag arrives, usually within seconds. A buyer reads the post at once, with no drip wait.

Customers sign in with their Shopify customer account, so a buyer who comes back next year on another device still has the article.

Limits

• Flow does the granting. RedeemID never reads orders. If the workflow doesn’t run, the buyer has paid and the post stays locked, so test it on a development store first.
• One tag per item. A post’s own tag never grants a level, so keep these tags out of every level’s condition.
• The button needs the product. It shows only when the Storefront connection can find the product and a variant that’s for sale. Check the post as a locked reader with the toolbar’s Access menu.
• A series is one tag. To sell a set of posts together, give every post in it the same tag and product. A post holds one tag, so it can’t be in two sets that sell separately; use a level for anything larger.
• Free posts ignore it. A tag on a post that’s free to everyone changes nothing.

Written for: Publishers, Creators