How to drip content to members on WordPress

Decide whether content should appear on the same calendar date for everyone or after a set number of days for each member. A calendar schedule suits a cohort that starts together. A signup-based schedule suits an evergreen course where members can join at any time.

Write the delay beside each lesson before configuring anything: for example, lesson one at 0 days, lesson two at 7 days and lesson three at 14 days.

WordPress can schedule posts and pages for a future date from the publishing controls. Combine that with a membership plugin that restricts the content to the correct level. This is fine when every member should receive the same release on the same day, or when you only have a small cohort to manage manually.

The drawback is important: WordPress does not calculate a separate release date from each member’s signup date. You must either publish for everyone at once or maintain separate schedules and access rules yourself. That quickly becomes error-prone for evergreen courses, and scheduled posts can also be delayed if the site’s scheduled-task system or timezone is misconfigured.

Create each lesson as a separate post or page, then assign it to the membership level that should eventually access it. Do not rely only on hiding lesson links from a menu: visitors who know a page address may still reach it unless the content itself is restricted.

Keep a simple schedule with the lesson title, delay, URL and membership level. This makes it easier to spot a lesson that has been published publicly or assigned to the wrong level.

For the faster signup-based route, install and activate Paid Memberships Pro, then add its Series: Drip-Feed Content add-on. In the WordPress admin, create a series, add the posts or pages, and set how many days after membership starts each item becomes available. Assign the series to the relevant membership level.

Items set to 0 days are available immediately. Later items are checked against the member’s time in the membership, rather than being released on one shared calendar date.

The Series add-on can place newly available content in the member’s account area and send an email notification when an item becomes available. Review the email wording, sender address and links before launch. Send a real test message because WordPress mail can be accepted by the site without reaching the member’s inbox.

If your series uses custom post types, check whether the add-on supports that post type before building the course. Standard posts and pages are the safest starting point; extending the list of selectable post types may require a code customisation.

Create a test membership account and check the content at day 0, before the next lesson, and after its delay has passed. Test both the direct lesson URL and the member account page. Also check the logged-out view so a restricted lesson does not expose its full content through an archive, search result or direct link.

The fast way is to use Paid Memberships Pro with the Series add-on: create the series, set each delay, attach it to a membership level and let the system manage release notices and member links instead of maintaining individual schedules by hand.