I had, in the past, tinkered with the notion of creating membership based websites. While there are plenty of CMS’ that could accomplish this, I have often wondered if there was a way to convert an established website into a password protected one without having to re-engineer the whole thing.
Well it looks like there is a way: Sentry Login. Sentry Login turns websites (or portions thereof) into member’s only password protected websites.
I have not yet tried out their service, I currently don’t have a need to but I always wondered what I would do if I decided to have member’s only kind of content. Re-engineering this website would be daunting. The prospect of dropping in some code sounds great.
Why would you want password protected content?
- some sites offer exclusive content to paying members
- maybe the websites content is free, but the tools and software need a password into order to enter and use.
- you want to create a special portion of your website for members to interact
- you may want to create some sort of space for private consulting or forum or the like
Sentry Login is intriguing enough to try. I would appreciate any comments from those who have tried it.
About the Author
Paul Flyer loves to research the web and find resources and tools for building, maintaining and promoting websites. Based in Saint Louis, MO, he works in management and spends his free time sharpening his web development and copy writing skills. Feel free to contact Paul with any questions, comments or ideas. He is also available to help you with your own website.
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Yeah, Sentry Login ( http://www.Sentrylogin.com ) is widely used by lots of our friends and sister publications. It is the best way to create a membership site out of your blog or site, and the best way to integrate PayPal Subscriptions IPN with automated member access.
I’ve been using Sentry Login for over a year. I think it’s a solid tool at an incredibly affordable price. For $4.95 a month it gives you some desirable features, and the customer service has been great. I’ve recommended it to several companies that I conduct business with. They allow you to easily create a skin of your existing site, and I just found out the layout of the actual Sentry page can be configured using CSS. I’ve played around with thier password protection feature before, but haven’t implemented it full scale yet. I’ll be using Sentry’s password protection feature when I send client specific content to my participating business members.