Posts only members can read

Any post can be for members only, or for members on one of your membership tiers and up. Everyone still sees the post's title, cover and excerpt, and everything above a line you place in the post, so it can be found and shared. The rest is for members.

Making a post members only has no plan limit of its own. Limiting a post to a tier needs the Growth plan, because membership tiers are part of Growth.

Without a members-only line, none of the post itself is free: readers see the title, cover and excerpt, and then a panel saying who the rest is for. On a post that is for everyone the line does nothing.

What readers see

On your blog, a members-only post's card carries a lock. On the Posts list in Blog it is marked Members only. The post's page shows the free part, then a panel saying who the rest is for. A signed-in reader who can read it sees the rest open in place, at the same address, a moment after the page loads. Anyone else is told why and what to do:

• Not signed in: join, or sign in if already a member.

• Signed in but not a member yet: join to read the rest.

• Membership not active: see your membership and renew it.

• Below the tier the post asks for: their membership does not include that tier, so they can move up.

If the check could not run, the panel says so and offers Load it again. Your owner, admins and editors can always read every post.

Search, sharing and feeds

Search engines, link previews and your RSS feed get the free part only. A post with no cover uses the first picture in its free part, so a picture below the members-only line is never used in a link preview or on a card. Your blog's own search finds a members-only post by its title, subtitle and excerpt, never by words below the line. The blog's search can take a few minutes to catch up after you lock a post.

Emails

An email made from a members-only post carries only its free part and a Continue reading button, whoever it goes to, and Drry tells you when it does this. That covers the email to your subscribers when a post first goes live, Email this post, and the email you can attach to a scheduled post. A member reads the rest on the post.

If you move a post between members and public while an email for it is waiting, such as a scheduled post's launch email or a live post's held email, Drry makes that email again from the post as it now is, to the same people. Changes you made to the old email's words are not kept. If it cannot be made again, you are told, and the earlier copy is left in Emails, off the post, for you to delete rather than send. An email you already made by hand keeps its words, so check it before you send it.

Hide a tier post from members below it

A post limited to a tier shows to everyone with a lock by default, which is what shows people what the tier gets them. To keep it out of sight instead, limit the post to a tier, then switch on Hide it below the tier's name in the post's settings, under Who can read it. The switch appears once a tier is picked. A post for members only, with no tier, cannot be hidden.

• Visitors, and members below the tier, cannot find the post. It is on no list, in no search, in no RSS feed and not in your sitemap. It is left out of Latest posts sections and your Bio Link's blog items. Its link shows page not found.

• Members on the tier or above find it on your blog's home, under For your membership on the first page, and open it by its link. They read it in full. Search engines are asked not to list that page.

• The Posts list in Blog marks a hidden post.

• A hidden post is never emailed to your blog's subscribers. An email you make from it with Email this post goes to whoever you address, with the free part only, so address it to people on the tier. In the new content email it reaches only members on the tier or above. See The new content email.

• A post that @mentions a hidden post shows your own words, not a link, to readers who cannot open it.

Only the owner and admins can hide a post, and switching it on needs the Growth plan. Switching it off works on any plan, and puts the lock back so everyone can see the post again.

Who can change it

Any seat on your team can make a post members only, or make it public again. Limiting a post to a tier, or taking a tier off, is for the owner and admins, and adding one needs the Growth plan. Taking one off never needs a plan, so you can always open a post back up. A tier you cannot pick still shows in the list, with the reason. A tier cannot be archived while a post asks for it.

Make the whole blog members only

To put every post behind membership at once, open Blog, then the Settings tab, and use Who can read the blog. Choose Everyone (the default), Members, or a tier, listed as the tier's name followed by members and up. Drry asks you to confirm, and the change applies at once.

It is a floor, not a ceiling. Every post that is open to more people than the setting allows becomes for that audience, and new and imported posts start there too. A post you already limited to a higher tier keeps its tier, and a post hidden below its tier stays hidden. Everyone still sees each post's title, cover, excerpt and anything above its members-only line.

A post cannot be set open to more people than the blog allows. In a post's settings, the Who can read it options below the blog's setting are locked, with a line saying why. To open a post up, change the blog's setting first. Changing a post by hand makes its access its own again, so a later change to the blog's setting leaves it alone.

Switching the blog back puts each post that the setting moved back to what it was. Posts you limited yourself, in a post's own settings, are never touched.

A reader who is not a member yet joins from the post itself with Join to read, and lands back on that post afterwards, without going through your community.

Only the owner and admins can change this. Limiting the whole blog to a tier needs the Growth plan. Choosing Members, or opening the blog back up, never does.