There are many great subscription extensions available for Joomla. However they tend to be very powerful and complex to setup. Some of our members have been asking for a very, very simple membership component. Simple Subscribe is it.
It doesn't do recurring subscriptions, lock down particular areas of the site or use anything except PayPal.
Basically Simple Subscribe allows people to pay a flat fee to become a Registered member of your site. That's it. If that works for you then Simple Subscribe is a great option. If not, click the link above a search for an extension with more features.
Installing Simple Subscribe
Go to the Simple Subscribe page on the Joomla Extensions Diretory and click "Download".
There should be a huge download button on the developer's website. Download the file to your desktop and then go to Administrator >> Extensions >> Install/Uninstall to upload the extension.
Configuring Simple Subscribe
Configuring Simple Subscribe is easy. Go to Components >> Simple Subscribe. Then enter your PayPal information, the cost of membership and the currency code. If you aren't sure what the right code for your currency is, check this list.
Next you'll need to make a sign-up link for people. Go to Menus >> Main Menu and click "New".
Choose "Simple Subscribe" and "Default Layout" from the dropdown menu.
Give the menu link a title such as "Join Our Site" and then click "Save".
Registering People
As soon as people click "Subscribe" they will be taken to PayPal where they can complete their subscription.
Extra Fixes Needed #1
There are a couple of extra fixes you'll need to make to make Simple Subscribe work perfectly. First, we're going to prevent people from registering without paying. Go to Extensions >> Module Manager and disable the "Login Form" module.
Instead of the default login module, we're going to use the Core Design Login Module. You can download it using the previous link to the Joomla extensions site. Download the file to your desktop and upload it via Administrator >> Extensions >> Install/Uninstall
Go to Extensions >> Module Manager >> Core Design Login module and open that module.
Under "Advanced Parameters", set "Define Links" to Custom - specify below". This means that people can't use the normal Joomla registration system to pay. They have to go through Simple Subscribe. In the "New Account Link" field you can enter this: index.php?option=com_simplesubscribe&view=register
Extra Fixes Needed #2
There is a small language mistake that appears on the Simple Subscribe registration screen.
To fix it, go to this file /components/com_simplesubscribe/views/register/tmpl/default.php
You'll need to find this line at the bottom of the file:
<?php echo JText::_( 'REGISTER_REQUIRED' ); ?>Either remove the line entirely or change the "REGISTER_REQUIRED" so that it reads "Required fields are marked with a *"