Is there any extremely easy way to password protect a blog?

November 15, 2004 11:18 AM

Is there any extremely easy way to password protect a blog. The real goal is to have a blog-as-ecommerce. I need to figure out how to set up subscriptions to the blog, charge (via paypal) and give each user a unique password and login. Any software I can get/buy to do this? If I have to hire someone who can build this for me, where do I look and what should it cost? I won't have many subscribers, so I can handle some issues mannualy if need be, but the more automated the better.
posted by limitedpie to computers & internet (8 comments total)

You can do this using paypal's IPN system, combined with a user management database. So it'd work like this in plain english:

anyone going to yourblog.com would get a login/register page that would pitch people on the site/service if they weren't members. So then they register, and get shuffled off to paypal to buy a subscription. When they pay, Paypal can ping a URL on your server with variables, which you'd use to tick off the database with a flag of "they are allowed to read the blog when logged in."
posted by mathowie at 11:41 AM on November 15, 2004

Doesn't typepad offer a passwording system?
posted by SpecialK at 11:46 AM on November 15, 2004

Matt, this is where I plead for the pony-- MeFi version of Craigs List you mentioned you were thinking about doing-- I'd love to hire a MeFi'te to do this for me. For, while I understand your excellent plain english answer (and greatly appreciate it) implimentation sounds way over my head!
posted by limitedpie at 12:47 PM on November 15, 2004

what type of service or webserver is/will be the blog hosted on?
posted by danOstuporStar at 1:15 PM on November 15, 2004

Dream Account seems to do everything you need, is mature, interfaces with a bunch of payment types and looks super easy to setup/use. It's $150.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:21 PM on November 15, 2004

I have done this sort of thing using PayPal's Payment Data Transfer feature. People sign up for a subscrtiption, pay with PayPal, then PayPal sends the data to your site, where I used ASP and Access to make a simple database to store the users, and the same database is used to allow them access. Not the most elegant thing but worked nicely. Might be interested in doing some work for ya, email me
posted by ac at 1:30 PM on November 15, 2004

1. The low-tech approach is to set a password on the directory using .htaccess (via the shell, or perhaps via cpanel). Just one username/password. Change it once/month, and mail out the update to your current subscribers. I was part of a group that used (and AFAIK still uses) this approach for a long time. You'll need to manage your current subscription list on your own.

2. There are a lot of more full-featured content-management systems (which can be used for blogging) where you've got fine-grained control over who gets to see what. Integrating a CMS with paypal sounds like a neat trick, and this is what ac is talking about.
posted by adamrice at 3:23 PM on November 15, 2004

I *think* this isn't too out of line, but the Professional Network I run is a community full of people who either know of systems that can do this for you, or will accept your money to make it for you.
posted by anildash at 3:04 PM on November 18, 2004