Setting Up Ghost Membership with Your Theme

Ghost has built-in membership and subscription support. This guide walks you through setting it up with any CCLY Studio theme.

Enable memberships

1. Go to Settings → Membership in Ghost Admin.
2. Under "Subscription access", choose:
   • Nobody — Memberships disabled. Subscribe buttons will be hidden.
   • Anyone can sign up — Free memberships enabled.
   • Only people I invite — Invite-only membership.

Once enabled, your CCLY theme automatically shows subscribe buttons in the header, CTA sections, and social proof areas.

Add paid tiers with Stripe

To accept payments for premium content:

1. Go to Settings → Membership → Stripe.
2. Click Connect with Stripe and follow the authorization flow.
3. Once connected, set your monthly and yearly pricing under Membership → Pricing.

Gate content behind the paywall

For each post, open the post editor and click the settings gear (top right):

• Public — Everyone can read. No paywall.
• Members only — Free + paid subscribers can read.
• Paid members only — Only paid subscribers can read.

CCLY themes display a styled paywall with a blurred content preview, a lock icon on post listings, and an adaptive subscribe/upgrade CTA.

Customize Portal

Ghost Portal is the built-in signup/login UI. Configure it in Settings → Membership → Portal:

• Portal button — Floating button in the corner. CCLY themes have their own subscribe buttons, so you may want to disable this.
• Signup notice — Custom message shown after signup (e.g., "Check your inbox!").
• Name field — Optionally collect names during signup.

Test the full flow

1. Open your site in an incognito window.
2. Click Subscribe in the header.
3. Sign up with a test email.
4. Visit a members-only post — you should see the full content.
5. Visit a paid-only post — you should see the paywall with "Upgrade your plan".