In brief: WordPress says over 400 million people view 20 billion pages on the platform every month. The company is now giving creators an easy way to set up subscriptions for their websites, which could prove beneficial especially for the smaller ones.
Last December WordPress owner Automattic released the latest version of the popular content management system with lots of new features and a new, block-based editing experience. The company now wants to lend a hand to the millions of bloggers out there that might not be able to sustain their creative work on ad revenue alone.
Owners of WordPress and Jetpack-powered websites will now be able to use a new feature to set up subscriptions for supporters who wish to help out with repeat contributions. The feature will be available as part of all paid WordPress.com plans, making it easy for website owners to charge for monthly donations, weekly newsletters, or "yearly access to exclusive content." It offers flexibility in setting up the payment schedule as well as a way for subscribers to cancel at any time, should they wish to do so.
Automattic has partnered with Stripe, who will process the payments for the websites that enable the recurring payments feature. Once you set up a Stripe account, going to the "Earn" page on WordPress.com will guide you on how to set up simple or tiered payment plans, as well as place a "recurring payments" button on your website.
This could provide an additional revenue channel for the three million creators who already use services like Patreon, as well as many others who want to monetize their work.