Membership

This document explains how the Membership page works in the Crimson Ghost theme, how to set it up in Ghost Admin, and how content like FAQs, the intro paragraph, and pricing cards behave based on your Ghost settings.

Membership page in Crimson

How the Membership page is set up

In the Crimson theme, the Membership page is a special page that the theme renders using a dedicated template.

Think of it like this:

• Ghost Admin is where you create and manage your content (pages, posts, memberships, tiers).

• The theme decides how that content looks on the front-end (layout, buttons, pricing cards, FAQs).

• The Crimson theme has a membership template that automatically:

  • Shows a membership title + intro text

  • Lists membership tiers (Free / Paid tiers)

  • Displays pricing in monthly/yearly modes

  • Pulls FAQ items from a specific Ghost Page (the one with slug membership)

So your job is mostly content setup in Ghost Admin; the theme will do the layout automatically.

---

How to create this page in Ghost

To make Crimson’s Membership page work properly, you must create a Ghost Page with the slug: membership

1. Go to Ghost Admin → Pages

2. Click New page

3. Give it a title like: Membership

4. Open Page settings (the sidebar)

5. Set the URL / Slug to: membership

6. Save and Publish the page

Adding the Membership page

Why the slug matters

Crimson specifically looks for a page with slug membership to fetch:

• The excerpt (intro paragraph under the title)

• The FAQ toggle cards you place in the page content

If the slug is different (like pricing or join), the theme won’t find it automatically.

---

How to add FAQs

Crimson’s Membership page supports FAQs automatically by reading Toggle cards (accordion-style blocks) from the Membership page you created in Ghost.

What you need to do

Inside the Membership page editor in Ghost:

1. Insert Toggle cards for each FAQ:

   • Add a Toggle card (Ghost editor → “+” menu → Toggle)

   • Put the question in the toggle title

   • Put the answer in the toggle content

2. Publish/update the page

Adding FAQs in Membership page

How Crimson uses them

• Crimson scans the Membership page content for Toggle cards

• It then extracts the Q/A and renders them in the styled FAQ section on the Membership template

• If you add/remove/reorder toggles, the Membership page FAQs update automatically

FAQs rendered on the Membership page by Crimson

Notes / tips for beginners

• Use one toggle per FAQ

• Keep answers reasonably short for best readability

• You can use formatting inside answers (basic text formatting usually works well)

If you add no Toggle cards, the FAQ section will hide itself.

---

The paragraph below the title comes from the Page “Excerpt”

On the Membership page layout, the short paragraph below “Membership” is not typed into the template directly.

It comes from the Excerpt field of the Ghost Membership page (slug membership).

Paragraph below Membership title

How to set it

1. Go to Pages → Membership

2. Open Page settings

3. Find the Excerpt field

4. Write a short summary (example):

   • “Choose a plan that fits you. Get full access to premium posts, newsletters, and member-only updates.”

5. Update the page

Adding Membership page paragraph

---

Behavior based on the setting use_portal_links

Crimson includes a theme setting called: use_portal_links

Read more about changing this setting in Site-wide Settings

What Portal means

Ghost Portal is Ghost’s built-in membership UI (a popup/modal experience) for:

• Sign in

• Sign up

• Paid checkout

If use_portal_links is enabled (true)

• Buttons and links are more likely to open Portal (popup/modal) instead of sending people to separate pages.

• For example:

  • “Sign in” may open a Portal sign-in modal

  • “Subscribe” may open the Portal checkout flow

This is convenient because it feels smoother (no page loads) and relies on Ghost’s built-in membership interface.

If use_portal_links is disabled (false)

• Links behave more like traditional navigation:

  • Users go to /signin/, /signup/ , etc.

Important note for Crimson users

Even if Portal is used for sign-in/sign-up actions, you should still keep your Membership page (slug membership) because Crimson uses it as a content source for:

• Excerpt

• FAQs

---

Behavior based on “Membership access” set in Ghost Admin

This part controls who can see content on your site, and it affects what membership means to your readers.

In Ghost Admin → Settings → Membership:

• You can enable membership features

• You can configure paid subscriptions (via Stripe)

• You can set whether signups are open or invite-only

The Membership page is essentially your “sales page” explaining plans and letting users subscribe.

Depending on your membership configuration:

• If members are enabled, the Membership page can show plans and let people subscribe.

• If invite-only mode is enabled, users can’t subscribe; the UI will show them the pricing plans, but they would not be able to sign up/subscribe.

---

Membership pricing cards

The pricing section displays a card for each membership tier you created in Ghost.

Where tiers come from

In Ghost Admin, tiers are managed in:

• Settings → Membership → Tiers

You need to connect Stripe account with your Ghost for paid tiers to work.

You typically create:

• A Free tier (if enabled)

• One or more Paid tiers (monthly and/or yearly pricing)

What each pricing card shows

Pricing card in Membership page

Each pricing card typically includes:

• Tier name (e.g., “Free”, “Premium”, “Pro”)

• Tier description

• Price

  • Monthly price (if configured)

  • Yearly price (if configured)

• Benefits list

  • These are pulled from the tier’s benefits settings in Ghost

• Subscribe button

  • The button launches signup/checkout behavior depending on your site settings

Monthly vs Yearly selector

At the top of the pricing area, users can switch between:

• Monthly

• Yearly

Monthly / Yearly selector

When switching:

• The page hides the non-selected pricing labels/buttons and shows only the chosen billing period.

Free trial ribbon (if you use trials)

If a paid tier has a trial period set, the pricing card can show a badge like:

• “X days free”

Free trial ribbon

This helps users quickly understand there’s a free trial before payment starts.

Invite-only behavior

If your Ghost site is set to invite-only for members, users cannot subscribe normally.

In that case, instead of a normal “Subscribe” checkout flow:

• The cards show a message indicating subscriptions are invite-only

• Users are encouraged to sign in if they already have an account

When members are enabled and not invite-only

If membership is enabled and subscriptions are open:

• Clicking Subscribe Now opens Ghost’s signup/checkout flow (often via Portal)

• The plan chosen (monthly vs yearly) is passed into the signup process so Ghost knows which tier and interval the user selected

---

Quick setup checklist

1. Enable Membership in Ghost (Settings → Membership)

2. Connect Stripe (if you want paid tiers)

3. Create tiers (Free + Paid tiers, set benefits, prices, trials if needed)

4. Create a Page with slug membership

5. Set the Excerpt (this becomes the intro text)

6. Add Toggle cards for FAQs inside the page content

7. Publish and visit: /membership/

---

Troubleshooting

The Membership page shows a 404 (Not Found)

Most common causes

• The required route isn’t available on your site.

• The page slug is incorrect.

Fix

1. In Ghost Admin, confirm you created a Page with slug exactly:

   • membership (all lowercase, no spaces)

2. Go to Settings → Labs → Routes (or where routes are managed in your Ghost version) and confirm your theme routes include:

   • /membership/

3. Save/update routes (if you’re using a custom ) and restart/reload your site if required. routes.yaml

Tip: After changing a slug, Ghost may keep old links cached in menus. Re-check your navigation links too.

Read more about routes at Upload routes.yaml file

The page loads, but the intro paragraph under “Membership” is blank

Why it happens

• Crimson pulls that paragraph from the Excerpt of the Membership page (slug membership), not from the page body content.

Fix

1. Go to Pages → Membership

2. Open Page settings

3. Add text in Excerpt

4. Update the page

Common mistake

• Writing the paragraph in the editor content instead of the Excerpt field.

FAQs don’t show up (or the FAQ section is empty)

Why it happens

• Crimson only picks up FAQs that are created as Toggle cards inside the Membership page content.

• If no Toggle cards are found, the FAQ section hides itself.

Fix

1. Edit the page with slug membership

2. Add Toggle cards (one per FAQ)

   • Toggle title = question

   • Toggle content = answer

3. Update the page

4. Refresh the front-end Membership page

Common mistakes

• Using regular headings and paragraphs instead of Toggle cards

• Using another card type (like Callout, Quote, or HTML) and expecting it to behave like FAQs

• Adding toggles on a different page (not the one with slug membership)

I created a Membership page, but Crimson isn’t picking it up

Why it happens

• Crimson looks specifically for the page with slug membership. If your slug is Membership, memberhip, pricing, join, etc., it won’t match.

Fix

• Rename the page slug to exactly: membership

Common mistakes

• Typos like memberhip (missing “s”)

• Using uppercase letters (Ghost usually normalizes slugs, but don’t rely on it)

Pricing cards don’t appear at all

Most common causes

• Membership is not enabled in Ghost.

• No tiers are configured.

Fix

1. Go to Settings → Membership

2. Make sure membership features are enabled

3. Ensure you have at least one tier configured:

   • Free tier and/or Paid tiers

If you want paid tiers

• You must connect Stripe in Ghost Membership settings; otherwise paid tiers won’t function as expected.

“Subscribe Now” button doesn’t work (or does nothing)

Most common causes

• Membership is disabled in Ghost.

• Portal is not enabled or not loading.

• Browser extensions (ad/script blockers) are blocking the Portal script.

Fix

1. Confirm Settings → Membership is enabled

2. Temporarily disable ad blockers/script blockers and test again

3. Test in an incognito/private window

4. If you are using Portal-based flows, ensure Portal is enabled in Ghost’s membership/portal settings

Common mistake

• Assuming the theme can handle paid checkout without Ghost membership + Stripe configured.

The site is “Invite only” and users can’t subscribe

Expected behavior

• If your Ghost site is configured as invite-only, users will not be allowed to freely sign up/subscribe.

• Crimson will show messaging indicating invite-only status, and typically directs existing users to sign in.

Fix (if you don’t want invite-only)

• Go to Settings → Membership and change the signup setting from invite-only to 'Anyone can sign up'.

Common mistake

• Turning on invite-only while expecting public subscriptions to work.

Monthly/Yearly toggle changes, but the pricing looks “wrong”

What’s usually happening

• A tier may only have yearly pricing set (no monthly), or vice versa.

• In that case, switching to the missing interval may show fewer cards or less pricing info.

Fix

• In Settings → Membership → Tiers, confirm each tier has the pricing intervals you want:

  • Monthly price set (optional)

  • Yearly price set (optional)

Common mistake

• Expecting Ghost to automatically “calculate” monthly from yearly (or the reverse). You must set them explicitly.

Discount badge shows 0% or doesn’t show

Why it happens

• The discount display only makes sense when both monthly and yearly pricing exist for the same tier.

• If monthly is missing, the discount badge may hide.

• If yearly is not actually cheaper than paying monthly for 12 months, it may hide.

Fix

• Ensure the tier has both monthly and yearly prices configured, and that yearly is meaningfully discounted if you want a visible discount.

Portal links vs custom pages confusion (use_portal_links)

Symptom

• Clicking “Sign in” opens a popup on one site, but goes to /signin/ on another.

• You expected one behavior but got the other.

Why it happens

• The theme setting use_portal_links changes whether membership links trigger Ghost Portal (modal) or traditional pages/routes.

Fix

1. Go to Settings → Design → Theme settings (Crimson)

2. Toggle use_portal_links

3. Save settings and refresh

Common mistake

• Enabling Portal links but also expecting /signin/, /signup/, etc. to be the primary flow (or vice versa).

Quick “Sanity Check” (When something feels off)

If you feel something is off, check these:

1. Page slug is exactly membership

2. Excerpt is filled (for the intro text)

3. FAQs are Toggle cards on that same page

4. Membership is enabled in Ghost

5. Tiers exist (and Stripe is connected for paid tiers)

6. Invite-only is not enabled (unless you truly want it)