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WordPress FAQs and Troubleshooting

FAQs#

Do I need a Coil account to use Coil's WordPress plugin?#

No, but having a free Coil account or a Coil Membership can be helpful if you want to check your site's Web Monetization.

What kind of privacy does the plugin offer me?#

The plugin:

  • Doesn't share user data with Coil or any other party.
  • Won't install cookies or other tracking tools other than WordPress's built-in login features.
  • Doesn't require you to have a Coil account. All you need is a payment pointer provided by a wallet provider that supports Interledger.

Do I need a payment pointer?#

Yes. We use your payment pointer to determine where to send your payments. You can install and configure the WordPress plugin without a payment pointer, but you won't get paid when Coil Members visit your site and content gating won't work.

Can each user/author have their own payment pointer?#

Yes. Each user in your WordPress instance can have their own payment pointer. When that user authors a page or a post, their payment pointer is added to the Web Monetization meta tag instead of the global payment pointer. See the Installation and Configuration page for more information.

Troubleshooting#

How do I test the Show/Hide block functionality?#

You can test blocks set to Only Show Coil Members and Hide for Coil Members by viewing the page/post in:

  • An unsupported browser, such as Safari
  • A supported browser without the Coil Extension installed
  • A supported browser with the Coil Extension installed, but not signed in with a Coil Member account
  • A supported browser with the Coil Extension installed, and signed in with a Coil Member account (requires a paying Coil Membership)

Everyone/no one can see my monetized content. Why?#

The most common reasons why Web Monetization doesn't work as expected on a site-wide scale are:

  1. Your payment pointer is missing or incorrect. Check the plugin's configuration.
  2. Your plugin's content settings are incorrect.
  3. There's a conflict within your content monetization hierarchy.
  4. The plugin is referencing the wrong CSS selectors for your theme's content areas.

CSS selectors#

Every theme has a stylesheet that defines the content areas for pages and posts. In many stylesheets, the CSS selectors for these areas are named .content-area and .entry-content. The Coil plugin uses these selectors by default. The selectors are set under the Global tab of the Coil plugin settings.

css selectors field under the global tab

If your monetized content is visible to all visitors, or isn't visible at all, your theme might use different CSS selectors.

First, try deleting the .content-area selector and replacing it with article. We've found that article .entry-content often works when the default doesn't. Save your changes then refresh a monetized page or post.

Second, if your monetized content still doesn't show correctly, force-refresh/force-reload the page/post. The command to do this varies per browser.

Third, if you are still having problems, inspect your theme's stylesheet to find the correct content area selectors.

  1. Right-click on a page/post that is showing/hiding content incorrectly.
  2. Select Inspect (Chrome) or Inspect Element (Firefox).
  3. Look through the <body> for a <main> element. You might have to drill-down quite a bit when looking through the stylesheet. If found, copy the id value and/or class value. For example, in <main class="site-main">, you'd copy site-main.
  4. Look for an article element (<article ...>). Note if found.
  5. Locate the div class for the content area (for example, <div class="page-content">). Copy the class value.
  6. In the Coil plugin settings, select the Global tab, then find the CSS Selectors field.
  7. Replace the values in the field with what you've found. If you found article, include that as well. For example, a stylesheet containing:

    <main class="site-main"> ... <div class="page-content">

    Means the following should be placed in the CSS Selector field: .site-main .page-content

The table below lists some popular WordPress themes and the CSS selectors they use for their content areas. Notice that most themes use the plugin's default.

ThemeContent Area CSS Selectors
Astra.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Colibri WP (modern theme).colibri-post-content
GeneratePress.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Hello Elementor.site-main .page-content
Hestiaarticle .entry-content
Nevearticle .entry-content
OceanWP.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Primer.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Shapelyarticle .entry-content
Twenty Fifteen.content-area article
Twenty Nineteen.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Twenty Seventeen.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Twenty Sixteen.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)
Twenty Twentyarticle .entry-content
Uptown Style.content-area .entry-content (plugin default)