Private RSS Feeds

Posts protected by Memberful aren't displayed in WordPress RSS Feeds. Memberful makes it easy to turn on Private RSS Feeds for members who prefer to read content with an RSS reader.

In this help doc:

• Enable the Private RSS Feed.
• Display the Private RSS Feed.
• Restrict by Plan.
• Limit feed to specific categories.
• Include Custom Post Types.
• Prevent feed from being indexed.

Enable the Private RSS Feed

From WordPress, visit Settings → Memberful → Private RSS Feeds.

Display the Private RSS Feed

Each signed in member with the specified access has their own unique RSS Feed. You can share this RSS Feed with the member in any WordPress page or post with a shortcode:

[memberful_private_rss_feed_link]Your RSS feed[/memberful_private_rss_feed_link]

Or, you can add it directly to your theme template files:

<?php memberful_private_rss_feed_link( "Your RSS Feed", "You don't have access." ); ?>

Restrict by Plan

If you are selling different levels of membership, and each level gives access to different content, you (or your developer) will want to customize access to your RSS posts. To do that, add this code snippet to your WordPress site:

function restrict_rss_post_access($allowAccess, $user_id, $post_id) {
  return memberful_can_user_access_post($user_id, $post_id);
}

add_filter("memberful_can_user_access_rss_post", "restrict_rss_post_access", 10, 3);

If you don't have a place where you usually add filters, you can add the snippet above to your theme's functions.php file. That snippet will restrict posts in the RSS feed using the same logic as the web version.

Limit feed to specific categories

By default, the feed includes posts from any of your WordPress categories. You can limit the feed to a single category by specifying it in the shortcode, for example, if you only wanted posts in the "interviews" category you would add:

[memberful_private_rss_feed_link category="interviews"]Your feed of bonus interviews[/memberful_private_rss_feed_link]

Limit it to multiple categories using the memberful_private_rss_category_ids filter action:

function my_theme_private_rss_category_ids( $category_ids ) {
  return array( 1, 3 );
}
add_filter( 'memberful_private_rss_category_ids', 'my_theme_private_rss_category_ids' );

Include Custom Post Types

By default, only regular WordPress posts are included in private RSS Feed. Add support for Custom Post Types by hooking into the memberful_private_rss_post_types filter action:

function my_theme_private_rss_post_types( $post_types ) {
  return array( 'post', 'custom_post_type' );
}
add_filter( 'memberful_private_rss_post_types', 'my_theme_private_rss_post_types' );

Prevent feed from being indexed

If you're using the Memberful WordPress plugin to create a private podcast, some podcast directories (such as iTunes and Google Podcasts) will find your feed and publish it in their apps so that their users can easily access it. While that's an excellent feature for free podcasts, you don't want that happening to your private feed.

To block indexing by iTunes and Google Podcasts, check the Block private RSS feeds from the iTunes and Google podcast directories option:

If you ever need to reinstate your feed, you might need to contact Apple / Google support so use this option with care.