Introduction
We are living in a world of business where the market of world business is moving under a paradigm shift from offline to online. As a result, having a structured monetization system for your website is not only have become a necessity but also an undeniable fact if you want to endure in the market. Keeping that in mind we have come up with this amazing extension where you can have a well-shaped monetization system and divide your market according to your preference and reach everyone in the community.
Dependent plugin install
The pricing plan comes with three dependent extensions in terms of use cases. Those are Paypal Payment Gateway, Stripe Payment Gateway, Directorist Coupon. These extensions are like other extensions. Hence, you can install and activate these extensions by simply following the process of Installation.
Activating these extensions will be dependent on the use case of your site. For example, if you want the use the PayPal and Stripe Payment gateways to receive the payments in your site using the pricing plan extension you have to install and activate Paypal Payment Gateway and Stripe Payment Gateway. Similarly, using Directorist Coupon you can have coupon features on the payment.
***You can use Paypal and Stripe both as online payment gateways and Bank Transfer is available by default as offline payment gateways. ***
***Pricing plan supports 3 online payment gateways and those are Paypal and Stipe and Authorize.net.***(FAQ also)
Configure pages depended on Pricing Plan
The Directorist plugin and some of the directorist add-ons use different pages with some specific shortcodes to function properly. You need to make sure all the pages are set properly in the settings. Usually, the directorist plugin and any directorist add-on should create all the required pages automatically and pages are assigned the settings. However, if they are not already created or assigned, you need to create the pages manually and assign them in the settings.
This is simply a three steps process that you need to follow for creating the pages and assigning them accordingly in the settings.
- Firstly, navigate to Directory Listings→ Settings → Page Setup
Then copy the shortcode of the page you are going to create.
- Secondly, navigate to Pages→ Add new
Then just give the page a name and paste the copied shortcode.
- Lastly, navigate to Directory Listings→ Settings → Page Setup
Then assign the created page accordingly in the designated section.
You can also copy the shortcodes from here to ignore the first steps.
- Checkout page- [directorist_checkout]
- Payment/Order Reciept page- [directorist_payment_receipt]
- Transaction Failure page- [directorist_transaction_failure]
- Pricing Plans Page- [directorist_pricing_plans]
Use case/ Steps
In terms of use case, the pricing plan consists of 3 steps that needed to be followed.
- Create plans: As a site Admin, creating the plans will be the first step. You can create as many plans as you want for different directories. By that, you can divide your target markets into different pricing plans. For creating plans, navigate to Directory Listings→ Pricing Plans→ Add New
- Create the listing under the plan: Users/listing owners will see the plans before adding the listings.
Then users will submit listings and complete payment. (Details in User Use Case section)
- Check orders: Admin can check the orders that have been placed by navigating to Directory Listings→ Order History
After checking the orders Admin can publish the listings according to the payment received.
Create Plan
As a site Admin, creating the plans will be the first step. You can create as many plans as you want for different directories. By that, you can divide your target markets into different pricing plans. For creating plans, navigate to Directory Listings→ Pricing Plans→ Add New
At first, give your plan a name as your preference.
Secondly, select the directory type if you have multiple directories.
If you do not have multiple directories you will not have this option.
***A single directory can have multiple plans but a plan can not fall under multiple directories.***
The pricing plan is divided into 2 configurations. (1) Basic Configuration (2) Fields Configuration
- Basic Configuration
There are 2 monetization ways an Admin should consider before creating a plan. For example, Admin can take payment from users per listing or as a package or make the plan completely free. Keeping all the probable scenarios in mind we have made the pricing plan versatile for the convenience of our customers. Hence plans can be in 2 types.
- Pay Per Listing: Admin can take payment from the users from per listing submission in this type. Users have to pay each time for submitting a listing.
- Package: In this plan type users do not have to pay each time for submitting a listing. Users will buy a package in this type of plan. The package must have a listing limit that needed to be set with type. Listings can be 2 types and those are General and Featured. Therefore, in this package plan type, an admin has to set the number of General and Featured listings submissions.
Consequently, selecting the package plan type will show this popup.
So selecting this option will make 2 fields to be appeared after Auto subscription field. Those are “Number of Listing(General)” and “Number of Featured Listings”.
You have to set a number to these fields and the package will be valid for the purchased users till this number.
***Only published listings will be counted***
***On the other hand you can mark as unlimited and as a result in that plan users can submit as many listings as they want.***
After selecting the plan type, you must set the price of the plan where you can also Add tax in 2 options which are Flat Rate and Percentage.
On the other hand, you can set the plan free where users will not have to pay but still will see the checkout page and go under the checkout process.
***Users can purchase the free plan only once.***
You can write a description of your plan.
After activating the pricing plan the listing duration will have to be set in the plan. You can also set the listing duration to never expire and in that case, the listings will not be expired.
***The listing duration in the Directorist Builder will not work while pricing plan is active***
***Moreover, the listings expiration date option will not be available in the listings edit page in the wordpress Dashboard. As a result, the admin can not edit the expiration date from the back end while the pricing plan is on***
In the plan, you also make the listing auto subscription by keeping this option on.
***This option requires Directorist PayPal or Stripe payment gateway***
Each plan will consist of sections of Add listing form located in the Directorist builder.
There are some fields and sections on the Add listing form which come from the other extension. For example, Booking, Live Chat, Mark as Sold.
***You must have these Extensions activated and add these fields and sections in Add listing form and Single listing layout and All listing layout located in Directory Builder***
An Admin can Exclude categories from the plan. In this case, the excluded categories will not be available in that plan.
You can hide each field from the pricing plan page or you can hide the whole plan from the pricing plan page.
By turning this option on users will not see this plan in the Pricing plan page.
- Field Configuration
As mentioned earlier each plan consists of the fields of Add listing form. Hence in this field configuration, all the fields of Add listing form will be available. So the directory you will choose for the plan, the fields of the directory’s Add listing form will be available here.
You can also set the limit for some of the fields and as a result, users will not be able to add more than the numbers that have been set for the specific fields. Tag, Category, View count, Fax, Images are fields where you can set the limit. For example, if the limit is set to 2, users will be able to add 2 Images only in this plan.
You can also mark it as unlimited for ruling out the limitations.
Configure Settings
For making pricing plan work perfectly make sure you have configured the pricing plan settings and other settings that are related to the pricing plan.
Monetization:
Please navigate to Directory Listings→ Settings→ Monetization
Then turn on the Enable Monetization button to enable the monetization on your system.
After enabling the monetization feature, configure the gateway settings. As mentioned earlier pricing plan supports 3 payment gateways. If you activate them all these payment gateways will be available in the Gateway settings. Select your preferable gateways from here.
For making the payment gateways work perfectly configure the settings for Paypal Gateway and Stripe Gateway and Authorize.net gateway
Pricing Plan Settings:
For configuring the settings, please navigate to Directory Listings→ Settings→ Extensions→ Pricing Plans
In the settings configuration, there are few options needed to be configured. Here, plans will not be shown to the paid users who have already paid for a packaged type plan if Skip plans for paid user option is turned on. In this case, paid users will be redirected to the Add Listing page automatically.
Moreover, if the Direct purchase plan is turned on users will be directed to the checkout page first and have to make the payment first. After completing the payment users will be able to submit the listings after the admin’s approval(Managing Orders).
***After payment admin must confirm the order and mark the order status-completed, after that users will be able to submit listings***
**In package Admin has to confirm once**
If the Direct purchase plan is turned off users will not have to wait for the admin confirmation to submit the listing. In that case, users can create the listings and then submit the listings. Then they can make the payment. However, the listings will be not be published. Admin will check the order history and if the payment is completed then mark the order as completed(Process is explained in Manage Orders section). After that Admin will publish the listings accordingly.
Users can not delete the listings in the assigned plan once submitted if this option is turned on
Display Plans
After activating the extension, add listing page will show the created plans automatically. After selecting a plan, the user can see the add listing form.
Display plan for visitors: The extension creates a page called 'Select Your Plan' with the shortcode [directorist_pricing_plans] upon its installation. It's not required to log in to see the page.
Pricing Plan: Plan Display Page.
Attributes/Parameters:
- ids: You can display plans by plan ids. Example: [directorist_pricing_plans id="1,2,5"]
You will find the plan ID at the bottom of the pricing plans.
- columns: You can set the number of columns of the grid view layout using this attribute. Example [directorist_pricing_plans columns="3"]
Users use case
After creating the plan and configuring the settings properly, users will be able to submit the listings under the pricing plan, can make the payment, can switch the plan, and most importantly and renew the plan.
- Submit listings
Submitting listings is a 3 step process that users need to follow.
Step -1: Users must select a plan to submit the listings.
***For Guest user, there will be an email section under each plan***
Step-2: There are 2 scenarios in this step.
Direct purchase plan On(Configure settings): While this option is turned on users will be redirected to the checkout page.
After completing the payment the users will be redirected to the Payment Receipt page.
After the approval of Admin (Manage order) user will be able to submit the listings.
Direct purchase plan Off(Configure settings): While this option is turned off users will be redirected to the Add listing form after the first step.
Then after successfully filling out the Add listings form, users will click the Save & Preview button and this will redirect them to the Preview page.
Users can Edit the listings by clicking the Edit button or if everything is okay users can click the Continue button.
After clicking the continue, users will be redirected to the Checkout page from there users have to make the payment.
After completing the payment the users will be redirected to the Payment Receipt page.
***Users will be able to see the listings in the dashboard***
There can be 2 types of users on a site. One type is guest user and another type is subscriber(those who have registered). Both types of users can submit the listings using the pricing plan.
- Guest user: A guest user who has not registered on the site he/she will also be able to purchase a plan and submit the listings under a plan. For letting the guests submit the listing Guest listing submission option should be turned on. Please navigate to Directory Listings→ Settings→ General→ Guest listing submission
Guests must give their email addresses before purchasing a plan. After purchasing the plan under that email address an account will be created with that email by default and the password of that account will be sent to the email address which the user can change anytime.
***After purchasing a plan users will become the subscriber***
- Registered Users; Registered users can submit listings by simply purchasing a plan. As mentioned earlier, the plan can be 2 types. (1) Pay per listings (2) Package
In the Pay per listings, users have to pay each time for submitting a listing.
In the Package plan registered users have to purchase the plan once and can submit the listings under that plan according to the listing limit of that plan.
*** In the pay per listings and the package listings Admin must make the order status completed(Procedure in the Manage Orders section) and users will be able to submit the listings afterward.***
After the order is marked as completed by the Admin, both Registered and Guest users will see the listings on the Dashboard.
***Listing status will be changed by the Admin from the Wordpress Dashboard(Explains in Admin use case section)***
- Switch plans:
If users need to change the pricing plan of your listing please follow the process shown below:
Step 1: Go to Dashboard > My Listing.
Step 2: Here users will see a “Three-dot Menu” beside each listing. Clicking on "Three-dot Menu" you will see the option for changing the plan. Kindly, click that option.
This will redirect users to a Change your plan popup from where user will be able to change the plan.
Step 3: Select a plan of your choice and click on "Change".
Step 4: Next users will be redirected to checkout page if the selected package is a premium plan. Then select a payment method and click on pay now to continue.
- Step 5: Finally users will see a confirmation massage with the order receipt. Now they can go to your dashboard by clicking on "View Your Listing" button. After doing this process you should wait for the approval from admin. Once admin approve; the listing plan will be updated to the selected pricing plan.
- Listings Renew with plan:
To renew a listing go to the User Dashboard page. Then click the “Three-dot menu” where you will be able to see the renew option. Clicking on the ‘Renew’ button will redirect the users to the checkout page.
Admin use case:
Admins can manage the orders that are placed by the users and according to the order status he/she can publish the listings.
- Managing Orders:
Please go to Directory Listings > Order History to view all of the orders received on your site. You will receive an order when a user submits a listing using a plan(if you are using directorist pricing plans/ Directorist Pricing Plans) or buy the featured listing. An order will have different statuses depending on the type of gateways a user chooses to pay at the checkout process. An order can have one of the following 6 statuses.
- Created: When an order created, it will have a "Created" status by default as an initial status.
- Pending: You can set this status manually when the payment for an order is pending.
- Completed: An order will have this "Completed" status when payment for an order is completed. However, only online gateways like PayPal or Stripe will update the status of an order to "Completed" automatically when the payment is made successfully, but you need to update the order status manually if the gateway is an offline gateway like the bank transfer gateway.
- Failed: An order will have this status when a payment fails. You can also set this status to any orders manually. Keep reading to know how to change order status.
- Cancelled: When an order is cancelled, it will have this 'Cancelled' status. You can cancel any order manually.
- Refunded: When you refund the money of an order, it will have this status. An online gateway will update the order status to refunded automatically when a refund is made. However, you need to update the order status manually if you make a refund manually.
When a listing submitted using a plan, the user will land on the checkout page. The user can pay for the plan using an online or an offline gateway. Of course, you need to have one or more online gateways like the Directorist PayPal Gateway or Stripe gateway installed on your site for your users to be able to pay using an online gateway. However, the default gateway available for free with directorist is the Bank Transfer gateway which is an offline gateway.
Online vs Offline Gateway:
An online gateway like PayPal or Stripe can mark the order completed if the payment is successful during the checkout. The purchased plan gets activated upon order completion. All the listings submitted under the activated plan will be visible to the website users. An offline gateway like the Bank Transfer Gateway will create an order and set the status of the order as "Created". Then once you receive the payment in your bank account, you should mark the order completed manually. See how to change the status of order below.
How to change an order status manually:
Please go to Directory Listings > Order History page and check the orders you would like to change the status of and select a status from the highlighted box and hit apply. The order will have a new status. For example, we are marking an order status as completed in the example below.
- Switch Plans:
Admins can switch the plans of the listings from the Wordpress Dashboard. For that please navigate to Directory Listings> All Listings> Edit
After clicking the edit button, Admin will redirect to the Edit page where he/she will be able to change the plan in Belongs to plan section.
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Last Updated: March 20th, 2024