Locked Articles gates individual blog posts so only members can read them. Non-members who open a locked article see an invitation to join instead of the content; members read as normal. It's article-level precision, perfect when a blog mixes free public posts with premium, members-only pieces.
Enforcement runs through Bold Memberships' theme app embed with a server-side membership check.
Use cases
Freemium publishing - A cooking blog posts free weeknight recipes publicly and locks the deep-dive technique guides for members.
Premium analysis - A collector community publishes free news posts, with market-analysis articles locked behind the paid tier.
Member spotlights and behind-the-scenes - Keep community-focused pieces just for the community.
Course-style series - Publish a multi-part series where part one is free and the rest are locked, resulting in a natural conversion funnel.
Step 1: Choose Locked Articles as the membership plan
From within Bold Memberships, navigate to Membership Plans.
Click Create Plan.
Click the checkbox next to Locked Articles and click Next.
Step 2: Configure billing options
In this step, configure the billion options you would like your customers to choose from when subscribing to your membership plan.
Billing managed by this app
If this option is chosen, you can set one or more billing options your customers can choose from when subscribing to your membership plan. Under Billion Option 1, configure the following options:
Price - Set the base price of the billing option.
Note: The value entered for the price field uses your default store currency.
Billing Frequency - Choose how often your customers are charged for this billing option. The options you have to choose from are Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Annually or One-time Purchase.
Maximum Cycles - If you select a billing frequency that isn't One-time purchase, you can set how long you would like to charge your customers. Keeping the default option "Unlimited" selected will charge your customers forever until the subscription is cancelled. If you would like to stop billing your customers after a certain amount of cycles has been achieved, click the dropdown option and choose a value between 1-99.
Enable Free Trial - If you select a billing frequency that isn't One-time purchase, you can offer a free trial to allow your customers to try the membership plan.
If you would like to offer multiple billing options to your customers, click Add Billing Option at the bottom and repeat the same steps as needed. You can offer up to 5 billing options per membership plan.
Billing and membership enrollment managed by another app or subscription platform
If this option is chosen, you can enter a customer tag or metafield to apply to the customer once they sign up for the membership plan. The tag or metafield you enter is then used with another application, such as Bold Subscriptions, on your store to determine how you bill your active members.
All customers (free)
If this option is chosen, the membership plan will be free for all customers that sign up.
Step 3: Configure plan rules
In this step, configure whether you want all articles to be hidden by enabling the checkbox next to All Articles or if only chosen articles will be hidden by selecting Browse Articles.
Step 4: Configure plan details
In this step, configure the details of the membership plan that your customers see on your storefront.
Plan name
Enter a title for your membership plan. The title used will be visible to your storefront customers.
Description
Enter a description for your membership plan, such as what benefits you are offering, your available price plans, etc.
Image
You can upload or choose an existing image to display on your membership plan. If uploading an image, please ensure you upload an image type of JPG, PNG or WebP of a max size of 5MB and ensure the image size is 800 x 800 px.
Membership Available
If enabled, the membership plan will be available for new customers on the storefront. If disabled, the membership plan will not be visible on your storefront and existing members signed up to the plan will still remain active on the plan.
Enable POS selling
If enabled, customers can be signed up on the Shopify POS sales channel.
Registration Fields
If you would like to gather more details from your customers during their initial member signup, click Add Registration Field and enter the label you would like your customers to enter in. For each registration field, you can set whether customers need to input an answer or choose from existing options in a dropdown format. For each registration field created, you can determine whether the field is required or optional by selecting the checkbox next to Required Field.
Click Add Registration Field and repeat the same steps for additional registration fields as needed.
Step 5: Online Store setup
In this step, you must ensure that the app embed block is enabled on your theme in order for the membership plan to appear to your customers. Click Open Theme Editor and ensure that the app embed toggle is active in your list of app embeds, then click Save at the top of the page.
Step 6: Configure advertised benefits
In this step, you can add a list of benefits that appear next to the membership plan widget via a bullet list display style to help drive the incentive for new customer signups.
