How to limit the number of downloads for gated content with a Memberstack subscription? Answered
Hi everyone, I'm wondering if there's a straightforward way to limit the amount of times a user downloads gated content? I have a monthly subscription but I don't want people to just sign up for one month, download everything and then cancel the subscription. Is this something that's possible? I'm a newbie so the more straightforward the solution the better!
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Hey Sarah Croney, just wondering if you are offering users to directly download the resource, or do you have any automation in place to send the downloaded resource via email?
It's a direct download at the moment
Okay, since you preferred a straightforward solution, I was hoping if you have any process in place, in order for user to download a resource.
In that case it would have been easier to have a limit, via some custom field in the webflow CMS or memberstack, where you can set a montly limit of downloads and everytime a user attempts to download, the automation workflow (like Make / Zapier) could check the remaining limit of downloads allowed for this user and send the email with the download resource or notify them that they have reached a limit if they have exhausted their limit.
Even better approach could be that, if you had this download limit info in the webflow CMS, you could also conditionally make the download button visible so that a user can't download it if they have exhausted their limit.
E.g. Download limit is 10 per month.
User has 2 requests left, show "Download" button.
User has 0 request left, show "Upgrade" or "Download limit reached, Check again next month" notification text or anything you want.
But in case you want to keep it as a direct download, I think you will have to explore custom code and some back-end service for your use-case 🤔
Ah ok, I'm happy to change the download method if it makes it easier to add the limit. Thanks so much for your response.
I've been trying to work out the Make automation but I'm completely new to this and would appreciate your guidance if you can help! Here is what i have done so far:
The part I am stuck on now is how to make the download button register the removal of a credit and how to make the button visible / not visible depending on the credits associated with the member. Can you point me towards the right documentation or an example of how this would work? ( or let me know if i'm on the wrong track) Thanks so much for your help.
Hey Sarah Croney, sure. Everything sounds good.
What's the process you have enabled for people to download the resource currently? I remember you were open to change the download method.
In case the download button is linked to an automation, which shares them the resource via email, you can add a module to update the credits of this memberstack user (in this case deduct by one).
Regarding the button visibility, although it could be done via code, I was researching if there was a simpler approach to this and I think, the following should work.
In the automation, where you reduce the credits of a user for every download, once they have exhausted their limit, you can just make the Credits custom field empty. Once this is set up, it would mean that users with credits custom field filled have some credits left for the month and if its empty they have exhausted their limit.
And you can make use of this, in your button using custom attributes shown in the screenshot. You just have to add the custom attribute field with the relevant field ID as highlighted in the screenshot, the example here is 'name' but you have to replace it with the custom id of your credits field.
Check this article for how to find the custom field ID of your 'Credits' field.
Thank you so much for taking the time to help me, I really appreciate it.
At the moment I just have a button that is pulling the link to the hosted content in memberstack. The button is currently only visible to people who have a plan. I was thinking that I could make the button only visible to people who have the 'CreditAdd' plan active on their account. Would that work? Does that mean I would need to attach all the gated /hosted content to the 'CreditAdd' free plan instead of the paid plans?
I'm struggling a bit with the automation for removing the credit through Does my button need to be a form submit button in order to trigger the automation to remove the credit and remove the plan (if the user has used up all of their credits)?
Hey Sarah Croney, welcome.
Okay, if adding and removing free plan seems ideal for your use-case, you could also take the route of assigning a free 'CreditAdd' plan everytime a user pays for a subscription. You could remove this plan if the credits are exhausted and you can hide / show the button based on whether or not the user is associated with the said plan.
You need to use similar approach of custom attributes as I mentioned above but here you will be passing the content-id instead like: data-ms-content="CONTENT-ID"
Attaching a screenshot for reference. You can find the content-id of your 'CreditAdd' plan in the gated content settings (highlighted in #2 screenshot)
You do not need to add the gated content to the free plan, since we are only looking to hide the button and not the entire gated page once credits are exhausted.
And yes, to ensure that you deduct credits and remove plans if they have exhausted their limit with the recent download, you need to make a form and use the submit button in this case, this will help you to include member id within the form so that you can search such user, check their credits status and make all the updations.
Thanks so much I’ll give it a try and see how I get on. Thanks again, your support has been a lifesaver.
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