How To Link Nanacast.com and WishList Member

by steveo on January 26, 2011

Want to use Nanacast for Affiliate Tracking and payment handling and still deliver secured, drip-fed membership content through WordPress using Wishlist Member?

With WishListCast you can do exactly that. Here’s how…

Grab Nanacast

Grab and Install WishList Member

Refer to Wishlist documentation for this
http://wishlistproducts.com/

Grab and Install WishListCast plugin

Grab WishListCast plugin at http://nanacast.com/wishlist-plugin
Upload through standard WordPress plugin install process

Create a Membership Level in WishList

Refer to Wishlist documentation for how to do this

Collect integration details from the Integration tab in Wishlist

wpid126-Collect_integration_details_from_the_Integration_tab_in_W.png

You need to know the "Secret Word" and the SKU for the membership you want to link

Create a Membership in Nanacast

This is the membership we will link to your Wishlist Membership Level
(i.e. signing up to this Nanacast membership will add you to Wishlist)
Refer to Nanacast documentation for how to do this.

Add "Password" as a custom field

This is the same as if you were using MemberLock

Tick the box to "not show password field and Auto-Generate Password Instead"

Link to WishListCast from your Nanacast Membership Custom Fields/Notifications

wpid129-Link_to_WishListCast_from_your_Nanacast_Membership_Custom.png

This is where you will link Nanacast to Wishlist through the WishListCast plugin

http://YOUR-BLOG.com/wp-content/plugins/wishlistcast/wishlistcast_api.php?security_code
=WishListSecretKey&levels=membershipSKU

If you have multiple membership levels you want to join you can use a "pipe" (|) to separate them, eg.
http://YOUR-BLOG.com/wp-content/plugins/wishlistcast/wishlistcast_api.php?security_code
=WishListSecretKey&levels=membershipSKU_1|membershipSKU_2|membershipSKU_3

Note: Line breaks here are for readability – the command goes all in one long line.

New in v1.1.0 - Set a Default User Role
You can now set a default WordPress role for the new user by adding &role=roleName (e.g. &role=subscriber to the link command e.g.
http://YOUR-BLOG.com/wp-content/plugins/wishlistcast/wishlistcast_api.php?security_code
=WishListSecretKey&levels=membershipSKU&role=editor

If you do not specify a role, then the "New User Default Role" from your WordPress Dashboard Settings | General will be used.
If you want the new user to have NO WordPress role use &role=none

Test by creating a New member

Add a new member in Nanacast.

The member will appear in your Wishlist Members

Check member appears in WishList Members

At this point, integration is working.

If you Unsubscribe the member in Nanacast, they will be Cancelled in Wishlist (simulate PayPal / credit card recurring payment stopped).
If you Resubscribe the member in Nanacast, they are Re-Activated in Wishlist (simulate PayPal / credit card recurring payment resuming)

Set Thank You Email

Make sure that the email you send to new members directs them to your Wishlist membership site (default is Nanacast).
To do this, just change the Website URL.

Bulk uploading existing members from Nanacast to Wishlist

If you have existing Nanacast members, you can easily bulk upload them to your Wishlist site by going to your Nanacast membership list (click View Active)

Upgrading existing members – make Nanacast members "Pending"

Upgrading_existing_members_-_make_Nanacast_members_Pendin.png

Hit Check/Uncheck All and change status to "Pending" – this will send an unsubscribe message to Wishlist (as the members don’t exist in Wishlist yet, this will have no effect).

Upgrading existing members – find "Pending" members

Next we use the Advanced Search functionality to find the existing Pending members

Upgrade existing members – find "Pending" members cont’d

Search for subscriber’s with "Pending" status

Upgrade existing members – set status to Subscribed

You may optionally Resend email receipt – this will send your subscribers the "thank you" email with their Wishlist login details.

{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }

Barry February 10, 2011 at 5:01 pm: Awesome job Steve!

Any chance you could do the same thing with D.A.P.?

I’d be willing to pay for such a plugin (and pretty sure there are others out there that would).

Just a thought.

Thanks,

Barry
steveo February 11, 2011 at 7:37 am: Hi Barry,

Appreciate the thought – don’t have the headspace at the moment.

However I had a quick look around the DAP site to see how hard it might be. I couldn’t find any API documentation (WishList Member had a documented API which made the plugin reasonably easy to create).

The closest I could find to DAP integration docco was their description of linking 1SC and DAP – something like this:
Thank You URL: http://yoursite.com/dap/dap-1shopcart.php?cartId=SecretKey
I’m guessing you’ve tried hooking Nanacast directly to the dap-1shopcart.php script

They have a caveat that the product names must match, which makes me think that the 1SC “thank you” is passing a whole lot more information in POST variables (like product name, user id, etc)

I’d start by writing a script to capture what 1SC passes to the “thank you” script – then you’d need to get the Nanacast API to make the same sort of call, passing the same data.

I’d use dap-1shopcart.php as a guide to what DAP needs and memberlock-api.php as the basic template from Nanacast for how to code it and what Nanacast are passing.

Maybe try Freelance or oDesk with this as an outline…

Hope this helps,

Steve
Fe Lewis February 14, 2011 at 3:40 pm: Awesome Steve! I have been looking for the right solution for a nice looking membership site I could integrate with Nanacast. Funny how I Googled to find the answer, only to stumble across someone from right under my Superfast Results nose! Thanks for sharing this info…

Fe
ryan March 8, 2011 at 9:59 am: Hey Steve,
I’ve followed your advice (thank you for taking the time to do this), but I’m unable to connect, the only variable I can’t account for is the “Post URL” from WL.

I added the Advanced Outgoing API per your formula: http://YOUR-BLOG.com/wp-content/plugins/wishlistcast/wishlistcast_api.php?security_code=WishListSecretKey&levels=membershipSKU

But, Nana cast hits me with this error:

Invalid URL:
http://mastery.alphainfluence.com/wp-content/plugins/wishlistcast/wishlistcast_api.php?security_code=(removed)&levels=(removed)
You must be able to successfully load the URL in order to add it to the system

Any ideas?
steveo March 8, 2011 at 10:49 am: Hi Ryan

OK – Nanacast gives that error because the URL doesn’t work, which is strange…

I took a bit of a look around your site. The first thing I checked is that your plugins directory is in the normal place – which it is: http://mastery.alphainfluence.com/wp-content/plugins/ – however it can’t seem to find the wishlistcast directory at all.

I’ll be honest – it almost appears as if the plugin isn’t installed…

I’d be more than happy to jump on skype with you (steve.ovens) and you can screenshare your site / Nanacast install with me – see if we can’t work it out together. Have to admit I’m curious as to what could be wrong!

Steve
ryan March 8, 2011 at 12:30 pm: Yea, duh… lol

I downloaded it and it works like a charm – flawless.

Thanks Steve, you’re a rockstar bro!
steveo March 8, 2011 at 1:37 pm: Happy to help dude!
Martin March 13, 2011 at 1:37 am: This looks awesome! I’m debating however whether to use 1SC or Nanacast with WishList Member….I’d love to know why is Nanacast your preferred shopping cart?
steveo March 13, 2011 at 2:42 pm: Hey Martin,

The biggest difference I see is that Nanacast is DESIGNED to integrate with other systems – and has built-in membership system, dripped content, complete sales funnel with unlimited up/downsells, best affiliate tracking system in the business, plus physical shipping automation built in. Oh, and split testing. You can run iTunes podcasts out of it. I could go on – it’s simply brilliant.

My mate James Schramko invested a lot of time and effort and several thousand dollars evaluating other carts – Nanacast won hands-down – and he’s running a 7-figure business on it – that’s good enough for me.

And of course, Nanacast integrates beautifully with Wishlist Member (using the plugin, which is free). I suspect both Nanacast and 1SC will do what you want right now. The difference really is that Nanacast will grow with you to handle anything else you may want to do in future.

Hope this helps in your decision.
Martin March 17, 2011 at 5:31 am: awesome Steve Thanks!!
Cary Ellis March 31, 2011 at 2:19 am: Hey Steve – I know James – almost got into Nanacast a few months ago at his recommendation – then decided to try DAP (very nice people and good plugin). It just didn’t do it for me and I’m back at Nanacast. People complain about the cost – but if it’s making you money and saving you time by how well put together it is – it’s worth it!

Thanks for the great tips – will share them with my tech guy -

best & keep up the great work!!! Cary
David Risley May 20, 2011 at 11:25 am: Hey dude,
Quick question… I’m noticing when a new member signs up, they aren’t being give the default role that I have assigned to that membership level in Wishlist. If I do a manual import or something, it does. So, I’m kinda wondering… might there be a bug or something in that a newly inserted member via the Nanacast API isn’t being assigned the proper default role? Because my new subscribers are getting their role as “None”.

Lemme know. But, fantastic plug-in, man. Don’t know where I’d be without it.
steveo May 23, 2011 at 10:44 pm: Hi David

Tricky one! Nothing you’re doing wrong – appears to be a side-effect of how I’m creating the user.

I would ideally call Wishlist’s API to add the user – but Nanacast’s generated password is too short. Because I need Nanacast to control the password creation, I first create the user in WordPress (using standard WP functionality) and then add user levels through Wishlist API.

I suspect WishList only sets the user “level” (e.g. subscriber) in WordPress if the user is also created by Wishlist – which is why your manual method is working and why the automated method I’m using inside the plugin is not.

I could make the plugin set a default user level of “subscriber” for users it creates – which is how Nanacast’s memberlock plugin works. Seems a reasonable default, though it wouldn’t match any custom setting you have in Wishlist. I’ll have a look and see if the WishList API gives me a way to determine the attached WordPress levels – otherwise I might have to add a new (optional) parameter allowing you to pass a role along with the Wishlist levels.

What do you think? Any comments on what would work best?

Cheers,

Steve
EricJ June 14, 2011 at 10:47 am: Hi Steve,
Looks like an interesting plugin. I’m already using Nanacast as well as Wishlist. What’s your strategy behind having Nanacast assign the password?
I was thinking about having the user set their own password inside Wishlist, and then managing the content with Wishlist as well. Then the only things I would use Nanacast for would be affiliate tracking and order processing. Since I wouldn’t need Nanacast to manage content and/or access, why do I need to have a Nanacast password at all? Appreciate your insights.
steveo June 14, 2011 at 3:27 pm: Hi Eric,

Fair question. Nanacast generates a password anyway for memberships – and I think It’s good if they are in sync with the wordpress / wishlist password (which the plugin handles).

Nanacasts sends the “thank you” email to the user – after generating a password and before they have hit Wishlist – so this is the best opportunity to tell the user (in the email) what their password is. This is why I think it makes sense to let Nanacast generate the initial password. You can always give uses the ability to change it from within their membership dashboard.

e.g.
Hi Fred,
Thanks for becoming a Silver Member of TargetCenteredGolf.com
You can access the system using this link: http://targetCenteredGolf.com/members/login with these details:
Username: fred@noreply.com
password: xyz123
This password has been generated for you. You can change your password at any time by going here:… etc.

Because Nanacast handles the payment, Nanacast is also updated with PayPal and credit card payment cancellations / suspensions / retries etc. Each of these can be (and is, in the case of the WishListCast plugin) communicated to WishList to suspend or cancel the member’s access accordingly. This is the main reason for needing the plugin to communicate these changes to Wishlist.

It’s worth noting that if a user’s Nanacast password is updated (in Nanacast for this membership), this change will also be pushed out to their wordpress / wishlist membership through the plugin. This is helpful if you control a number of sites as you can update memberships centrally through the Nanacast interface rather than having to log in to multiple wordpress dashboards.

Hope this gives a bit more background to the plugin.

Cheers,

Steve
EricJ June 16, 2011 at 2:25 am: Thanks Steve. Excellent explanation. I’ve installed your plugin and am testing it.
Another question: I use Aweber for my autoresponder. I have the Nanacast API synced to export the user info to Aweber when someone buys a product (which is set up as a membership inside Nanacast). But Aweber requires a double-optin whenever a third party adds someone to the list. So when someone buys a product Nanacast sends them a password and Aweber sends them a confirmation email. But because the buyer already has their account access info from Nanacast I’m losing about 20% of my buyers who never click the confirmation link in the Aweber email, so the buyers do not end up on my autoresponder series. They don’t have to click the confirmation link in the Aweber email because Nanacast already sent them their access info.
This scenario is for the situation where the buyer is accessing the product info and videos within Nanacast. I am just now switching to have the content on a WordPress/Wishlist site, rather than within Nanacast.
Do you know of any way to require/force the buyer to click the confirmation link before they get access to the WordPress/Wishlist site?
Kris Mainieri June 20, 2011 at 2:48 am: Hey,

Did you ever figure out a fix for the Roles?

Great stuff!

Thanks,
Kris
Brian Johnson June 21, 2011 at 6:01 am: Hi Steve,

Thanks for all the work you’ve put into WishListCast. Excellent plugin!

I’m a web designer in the Internet marketing niche and also setup Nanacast accounts/memberships for Nanacast customers. I’ve got WishListCast installed in a client’s WordPress account (along with the WishList Member plugin). Nanacast and WishList are successfully communicating with each other.

I need to add more advanced API functionality, though, and need some guidance. I’m hoping this is something you can help me with.

I need to accomplish 2 things:

1. Send user account information from WishList Member to Nanacast. People will join a free membership in WishList Member, and I need the membership information (username, password, etc.) sent via API to Nanacast to create an account within Nanacast. (So later, when members purchase a product through Nanacast they will already have an account and won’t need to enter their information again.)

2. I need to provide Affiliate Tools inside of WishList Member instead of through the Nanacast Affiliate Center. So I need to send affiliate and product information from Nanacast to WishList Member. (Affiliates are all in a Nanacast Membership created especially for affiliates.)

I’m at a loss what to setup and where to set it up in WishList Member, and any additional actions I need to take in Nanacast beyond the basic setup I already have. Hopefully I’ve provided enough detail here.

Do you have some expertise you can share with me? Let me know if you’d like more details. If you’d like to talk I’d be happy to give you a call if that would be easier.

Thanks for your help!
Brian

P.S. I’m a designer/HTML/CSS guy with no programming knowledge… so am hoping I can get things done without programming.
steveo July 2, 2011 at 5:41 pm: Hey Kris

Saw your new video the other day – I was at James’ place – nice work! Back when I had a PC, your PC Tweak Guide (http://pctweakguide.com) was a lifesaver!

The roles fix is on my ‘to do’ list – should be straight-forward, just got a couple of other projects taking center stage at the moment. Glad you’re finding the plugin useful!

I’ll post an update (which should auto-update) once I sort out the Roles thing

Steve
steveo July 2, 2011 at 6:12 pm: Hi Brian

Understand what you’re after. Do-able (with some coding), but raises a couple of queries.

Whilst you *could* get Wishlist to drive the Nanacast membership (through Nanacast’s incoming API), you lose the benefit of Nanacast’s affiliate tracking. I’d recommend using Nanacast to handle the “sales” side of things – even of free memberships – and let Wishlist handle the membership stuff that it’s good at. You can even embed the “buy now” button from nanacast in your free membership area using wishlist shortcodes. If you use Nanacast (and the plugin), then nanacast can send the email with username / password (in fact, for programmatically created members, Wishlist doesn’t send a new user email).

The affiliate info is passed across by Nanacast (and discarded). Again, you *could* put that info somewhere and create a Wishlist membership to deliver affiliate promotional info etc. – and I can see a benefit to doing this (embedding your promo link inside the membership) – though you’d be largely replicating what Nanacast already gives you out of the box in terms of managing banners, emails and such. Still – I do see the benefit of being able to encourage users to promote their affiliate link. I’ll put this on the ‘to do’ list to investigate further.

Cheers,

Steve
Kris Mainieri July 16, 2011 at 5:25 am: Steve,

Thanks for taking the time to create this. It’s help me integrate PCTweakGuide.com with NanaCast flawlessly.

I just created a new Wishlist members area per level. Seems to work like this.

Thanks,
Kris Mainieri
Wynne August 26, 2011 at 7:25 pm: Hey Steve
Thanks for the great info and the plugin.
Your method works great!
Cheers
Wynne
Fe Lewis September 1, 2011 at 3:58 pm: Hi Steve,

Just wondering what the benefits are of using Wishlist with Nanacast – as opposed to using the standalone Nanacast membership function?

If I am starting a membership site from scratch and do not plan to have a blog attached to it – is it better in anyway to integrate Wishlist with Nanacast?

Thanks…

Fe
Joe Gilder September 10, 2011 at 3:31 am: Hey Steve!

Great plug-in. I’m having the same issue David Risley was having above. I use Simple Press forums, which depends on the WP user roles to assign permissions. The integration with Nanacast is causing users to be created without a “role,” and I have to manually change them. Not ideal. Have you made any headway on this?
Kris Mainieri September 13, 2011 at 12:29 am: Hey Steve,

Did you ever implement the Roles fix?

Kris
AJ Silvers September 14, 2011 at 4:20 am: Hi Steve,

Just wanted to drop by and say thanks for creating this amazing little plugin. It was the deciding factor for me choosing Nanacast as I am already using wishlist (just need to move the memberships over now

Having tried many other solutions, all API based (and it’s been a few years since I actively cut code) it was a real pleasure to have a plugin that just made it work.

Not sure if you know but the Nanacast UI has changed quite a bit since you published this guide but with a little searching I was able to find and configure all the settings I needed to.

Once again, thanks! This is a brilliant plugin.

AJ
steveo September 24, 2011 at 1:08 pm: Hi Kris / all,

Got a fix on the way for this. Just need to fix my plugin updater code first so I can distribute!

Keep an eye out for an update.

Steve
steveo September 24, 2011 at 4:43 pm: Hi Joe

Just released a new version with a fix for this. Use the same download instructions from your original email to access the new release.

This release also includes plugin auto-update, so any future releases can be installed directly from WordPress.

Hope this helps!

Steve
steveo September 24, 2011 at 4:45 pm: Hey AJ,

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you find it useful.

I’ve just updated the plugin (to support WordPress user roles) and in the process I updated the documentation – the password screen shot was out of date. Didn’t find any others, but if there’s any I’ve missed just let me know.

Cheers

Steve
steveo September 24, 2011 at 6:02 pm: New release is LIVE. Download instructions emailed to all confirmed subscribers.

If you didn’t opt-in for email updates, you can download the new release using the same email / password you originally signed up with here:
http://nanacast.com/wishlist-plugin/login

(There’s a forgot password link if you’re stuck!)

Have fun!

Steve
Kris Mainieri November 6, 2011 at 5:17 am: Steve you’re the man!

Thanks so much for this amazing little plugin. It makes this integration seamless!

Thank you!

Kris
steveo November 7, 2011 at 9:10 am: Hey Kris
Thanks for the feedback mate – happy to hear it’s working well for you. I certainly enjoy the chance to do a bit of coding! Working on another cool project for Aweber users at the moment which I’m having fun with – will keep you posted!

Steve
Barry Goss December 8, 2011 at 8:23 am: Steve,

I’m checking in to see if you want to tackle a custom Nanacast-to-Click2Mail API integration project ?

Come to think if it, if you are able to connect the twp vendors, you could easily get a lot of demand creating a “how to” report on how to use the API, along with some cool ways to create an auto-pilot online-to-offline marketing solution.

What I’m looking for is to have Nanacast spit out API requests to Click2Mail. Here is the page they have:
https://developers.click2mail.com
Toby Black December 30, 2011 at 4:12 am: You Rock Man!

This is exactly what I needed.

Wish I would of come across you when I did my last product.

Thanks again

Toby
Edson Buchanan January 27, 2012 at 6:01 pm: Hi Steve,

I have been looking for a shopping cart that works with numerious wishlist sites for the past month. It was a shock to find out the current shopping cart I was using only worked with one wishlist site. So after testing serveral different shopping carts, I came across your blog with a google search.

Only thing I could say was I wished I found this guy a month ago. Your plugin works perfect with wishlist, paypal and nanacast and I just wanted to say thank you so much for creating it.

I also want to thank you for helping me make sure everything works with my website. You are truly someone who cares about helping others out. I hope someday I can return the favor to you.

Regards,

Edson Buchanan
Jimmy Huch August 14, 2012 at 2:51 am: Hey Steve,

I’m wondering if there is a way to make Sequential Upgrade on automatically when someone gets added via your plugin.

Thanks
Peter Endersz December 7, 2012 at 1:56 am: Hi

Thanks for the great post!

I ran into a problem. Here is the setting:
I set up three levels (free, silver, gold) in nanacast and wishlist too. Do the above described settings.

It works well when people simply subscribe a level.

BUT

I set up the nanacast buttons for free members to upgrade. Once they purchase silver level nothing happens. They are upgraded in nanacast, but not in wishlist. If I set up in nanacast to cancel people from the free once they upgrade, they just get cancelled in wishlist, but not activated in the new level. If I setup not to cancel then nothing happens.

Do you have any sollution for this?

Thanks,
Peter
Steve December 21, 2012 at 12:48 am: Hey Steve, Great plugin! Thank you.

If I have a membership level that I auto-upgrade in wishlist after 12 weeks to a different membership level, I’m assuming I just make a nanacast membership and link it up to my wishlist and I will still be able to control the list through nanacast?

And the members will automatically show up as active members in nanacast even though they were “added” through wishlist?

I don’t see where nanacast has the “auto-upgrade” feature after a certain time.

Just in case the “big picture” helps you…I am offering direct access to my coaching through the comments for 12 weeks in my course. Then the “auto-upgrade” will switch them to a level that no longer has access to comments.

Thanks so much, Steve. Please let me know if the above scenario will work or any other tips you have.

Steve
steveo December 30, 2012 at 4:06 pm: Hi Steve

Hope I’ve understood what you’re after…

With the plugin, adding users to a nanacast “membership” adds those users to wishlist – it doesn’t work the other way around (so for example linking an existing wishlist level with existing users already in it does NOT add those users to nanacast). Once you link nanacast to wishlist, any new nanacast users are automatically added to the wishlist level.

You can certainly set up an auto-upgrade function through wishlist – they call it “Sequential Upgrade” from memory. So you can have a “First 12 weeks” level, then a “After 12 weeks” level – and have users automatically move from the first level to the second level after 12 weeks. This is done in Wishlist and does NOT affect the users membership in nanacast.

Essentially, the way I look at it, nanacast gives you payment gateway, affiliate management and mailing list integration, and wishlist / wordpress give you content delivery and user experience.

Hope this helps explain it a little better and gets you to the solution you want.

Cheers

Steve
steveo December 30, 2012 at 4:08 pm: Hi

Thanks for your help in investigating this one Peter. For anyone else experiencing this issue, it is solved in the latest release (v1.4) which is accessible through your original download email link.

Cheers

Steve
steveo December 30, 2012 at 4:09 pm: Hi Jimmy

You can set this up in Wishlist using their Sequential Upgrade feature. Just enable it for whatever level the user is being added to (from nanacast), and wishlist will take care of the rest. This is a very handy capability if you want to drip content over several weeks.

Steve