A meditation membership sells three things at once: a library of recordings you can return to, a few moments when the teacher is actually there, and a rhythm that makes sitting each day easier than skipping it. Members pay for the combination. A folder of audio files alone competes with free apps, so the live sits and the daily rhythm matter as much as the recordings.
This guide shows how to build that on WordPress with Learnomy for the audio courses and the paywall, Eventonomy for scheduled sits, and WB Gamification for streaks. A member space on BuddyNext is optional but useful. Free and Pro scope is labelled as we go.
One boundary first. This is a setup guide for a practice membership, not health guidance. Do not describe your recordings as treating, curing or preventing anything, and if members raise a health concern, the answer is to consult a qualified professional. If your teaching is aimed at people dealing with mental health difficulties, read the guide to peer support communities for mental health for the signposting basics.
Choose what you are selling
Before you touch a plugin, decide which of these shapes your offer takes, because each one sets up differently.
| Offer | What the member gets | How it sells |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly or yearly membership | Everything in the library plus the live sits | Recurring plan |
| A single course | One structured programme, such as an introductory series | One-time price |
| Time-limited access | A course available for a fixed number of days | Fixed-term price |
| Both paths | Buy one course, or reach it through the membership | One-time or members |
Learnomy handles all four with pricing models on each course, and the free plugin includes Stripe and PayPal checkout, membership plans and coupons. A membership plan can include a free trial of however many days you set, and you pick whether it covers the whole catalog or a chosen bundle of courses. Gift codes and team seats, plus proration, pause and refund tools for subscriptions, belong to Learnomy Pro.
There is no Stripe price ID or PayPal plan ID to create by hand. You enter the price on the course or plan and the gateway product is created when the first purchase is made.
Audio lessons that open and play
Learnomy lesson types include Audio, Text, PDF, Download, Video and Embed, all in the free plugin. An Audio lesson plays in an inline player. You paste the file address in the lesson’s media field.
Protecting what you upload
If the audio file lives in your own media library, saving the lesson moves it out of the public uploads folder and serves it through a link that checks the visitor first. Entitlement follows enrolment, membership, preview flags and any drip schedule, so you do not configure anything extra. Two details to know:
- The old public address of that file stops working. Update anywhere you pasted it outside the lesson.
- A link to a file hosted elsewhere is left as it is. Learnomy cannot gate what it does not store, so if the recording must stay behind the paywall, upload it to your site.
This controls who may open the file. It does not stop a paying member from doing what they like with what they have been given, and no plugin can.
Shape the library
A library with hundreds of tracks is only useful if people can find the right one on a tired evening. Learnomy courses have categories and tags, plus difficulty and target-audience fields, and the catalog can be filtered. Think in terms of how a member would phrase the need: how long they have, what kind of session they want, where they are in the practice.
| Library layer | Example of how to organise it |
|---|---|
| Starter course | A short sequence for newcomers, taken in order |
| Themed courses | Sessions grouped by subject |
| Length shelves | Short sits for a busy day, longer ones for weekends |
| Guides | PDF or Download lessons with printable instructions |
For a course that must be taken in order, set prerequisites, and a student can only enrol once the earlier course is completed. For a starter series released a step at a time, the free plugin has an Available date on each lesson, and Learnomy Pro adds a per-student countdown after enrolment. Notes and bookmarks, where members keep private notes next to a lesson, are also Pro.
Each lesson should say what it asks of the listener in one line, and how long it runs. If a recording is meant to be done seated and awake, say that in the lesson text. That is a plain instruction to the listener and not a health claim. Leave any statement about what the practice will do for someone out of it.
Live sits that happen on a schedule
Recorded sessions build a library. Live ones build a habit, because people show up for a time. There are two ways to run them, and they suit different jobs.
| Learnomy Live lesson | Eventonomy event | |
|---|---|---|
| Who can see it | Enrolled students and members only | Public by default, or link-only |
| Where it sits | Inside a course | On a calendar and event pages |
| Join link | Zoom, Meet or Teams address you paste in | Personal link per registrant |
| Countdown | Before, during and after states | Join button from one hour before |
| Recurrence | Add a lesson per session | Built in |
| Best for | A members-only sit tied to a programme | A recurring public taster, RSVPs and waitlists |
A live lesson inside a course
In the lesson editor, choose the Live content type and fill three fields: the join link, the start time in the site timezone, and how many minutes the session runs. Students see a countdown before the start, an enabled Join now button during the window, and a message that the session has ended afterwards. If you leave the run time blank, the window is 60 minutes.
One trap: do not put the session time in the Available date field. That field is the drip schedule, and setting it locks the lesson so students never see the countdown. Leave it blank on a live lesson.
This method uses the course’s access rules, so a members-only course means a members-only sit.
A recurring sit with Eventonomy
For a weekly public session, create an event, tick Virtual, add the meeting address, and set it to repeat. The free plugin offers daily, weekly and monthly repeats with an interval, so every week or every other week. Each registrant gets a personal link on the event page and in their reminder email, and the link stops working if they cancel. The join button appears from one hour before the start until the event ends. Visitors who have not registered never see the meeting address.
Other free features that suit sits: RSVPs with a capacity and automatic waitlist, reminders sent one day and one hour before, and an Add to calendar row with Google, Outlook and .ics options. There is also a subscribable calendar feed.
Pro matters in two places. Repeating on specific weekdays, such as every Monday and Wednesday, is a Pro rule. So are paid tickets, if you want to sell single sits. If you stay on the free plugin, create two weekly events, one for each day, instead.
The virtual and hybrid events guide and the recurring events guide go further on the mechanics.
After the sit
The sit becomes a library track when you record it and add it as a new Audio or Embed lesson. Do this with the consent of anyone whose voice is on the recording, and tell attendees before a session is recorded. Your recording tool handles the recording itself, and Eventonomy does not record anything.
Practice streaks without pressure
Daily practice is the point of the whole membership, so a streak is a natural fit. WB Gamification has no Pro plan; streaks, challenges, badges and levels are all in the one free plugin.
How a streak is counted
A streak counts consecutive days on which the member earned at least one point from any action. It is not tied to logging in, so the member has to do something. WB Gamification’s Learnomy integration awards points when a student completes a lesson, so finishing a sit counts toward the streak. Streak days follow the member’s own timezone.
There is a grace period of one day by default, which lets a member miss one day without breaking the streak. You can set it between zero and three days. Milestones at 7, 14, 30, 60, 100, 180 and 365 days can give bonus points and a notification, and you can set the bonus to zero for a notification only.
Keep it kind
A streak can turn a gentle practice into a source of guilt. A few choices help:
- Use the grace period generously, and set milestone bonuses low or to zero.
- Show a member’s streak on their own dashboard with the Streak block, and skip public leaderboards. Members can opt out of leaderboards, but not appearing on one in the first place is better for a quiet practice.
- Say in the welcome text that missing a day is fine and the streak is there as a nudge only.
For the general design thinking, see the guide to streaks and challenges that bring members back.
The daily login bonus is a separate counter with its own tier ladder. If you want a single streak, turn the bonus off and rely on the main streak engine alone.
A place to gather
A membership with audio only can feel solitary. A small private space gives people somewhere to say how it went. With BuddyNext you can create a private space that members join by request, and use announcements from the owner or a moderator to post the week’s schedule at the top of the feed.
Two connections require BuddyNext Pro: showing Eventonomy events in the BuddyNext feed and search, and linking a Learnomy course to a space so that enrolment adds members automatically. Without Pro, the space and the courses still work side by side.
BuddyNext includes an installable web app option, so members can put the site on a phone’s home screen. When BuddyNext is active, Learnomy leaves the offline and install layer to it, because a browser allows only one service worker per site. It is a web app, not a native app, and should not be described as one. Test audio playback on the phones your members use before you promise anything about listening offline.
Make the first week easy
Most people who cancel a practice membership do so in the first few weeks, before the habit exists. Plan that stretch deliberately.
Offer a short introductory course at the Free pricing model, where any signed-in visitor enrols with one click and no payment. It lets people hear your voice and test the audio player before they pay. Place the membership offer on the course page and on the last lesson, and give a coupon code to people who finish it. Coupons are in the free plugin.
Write the welcome lesson as logistics. Tell new members how long the first recording runs, what they need to listen, how to find the live sits and where to ask a question. If you offer a free trial on the plan, say on the sign-up page when the first charge happens, so nobody is surprised by it.
Course reviews are available too. Learnomy lets enrolled students rate and comment on a course, and an admin can approve reviews before they appear. Reviews appear next to the course, so they help someone deciding whether to join, and you stay in control of what is shown.
Finally, decide how you will handle a member who writes to say they are struggling. A meditation teacher is not a clinician. Have a short, kind reply ready that thanks them for telling you, says plainly that you cannot give health advice, and suggests they speak to a qualified professional or, if there is any immediate danger, local emergency services.
A sample weekly rhythm
This is an example to adapt, not a recommendation about how long or how often anyone should practise.
| Day | In the library | Live |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | New recording released | None |
| Wednesday | Short guide posted in the space | Live sit |
| Friday | Recording of the live sit added | None |
| Weekend | Longer session available | Optional drop-in |
A predictable calendar does more for retention than an occasional burst of new material. Publish it where members will see it, and keep it for a few months before changing it.
Where the paid plugins come in
| You want | Plan |
|---|---|
| Audio lessons, memberships, coupons, trials, Stripe and PayPal checkout | Learnomy free |
| Per-student drip, notes and bookmarks, gift codes, subscription management | Learnomy Pro |
| Virtual events, weekly repeats, RSVPs, waitlists, reminders, calendar feed | Eventonomy free |
| Specific-weekday repeats, paid tickets | Eventonomy Pro |
| Streaks, challenges, badges, levels, leaderboards | WB Gamification (no Pro plan) |
| Events in the community feed, course-linked spaces | BuddyNext Pro |
The free versus Pro page shows every plugin together, and what Reign is explains the theme. Reign is built to work with BuddyNext and every Wbcom plugin, so the whole site shares one design.
Frequently asked questions
Can I keep my recordings behind a paywall?
Yes, if you upload them to your own site. Learnomy serves uploaded files through a link that checks the viewer is entitled to the lesson. Files linked from another host are not gated.
Do I need Eventonomy Pro for weekly live sits?
No. The free plugin repeats events daily, weekly or monthly with an interval, includes RSVPs and reminders, and supports virtual events with a personal join link. Specific-weekday repeats and paid tickets are Pro.
What is the difference between a live lesson and an event?
A live lesson sits inside a course and follows its access rules, so only enrolled students see it. An event lives on the calendar and is public unless you make it link-only. Use the first for members-only sits and the second for open sessions.
Do streaks need a login every day?
No. A streak needs the member to earn a point from any action on that day. Finishing a lesson does that when WB Gamification’s Learnomy integration is active.
Can I promise that this practice helps with a health condition?
No. Do not make health claims. If someone raises a health concern, tell them to consult a qualified professional.
Does WB Gamification cost extra?
No. It has no Pro plan, and every mechanic ships in the free plugin.