BuddyPress.org

Hello all! I’m so excited. I’ve known about BuddyPress for a while now, but have never had the opportunity to use it for anything. I’ve used MU – but only a little bit – I’m mostly just a standard WP fiend.

However, I have a potential client who has contacted me with a concept that I think BuddyPress *might* be a perfect fit for. But since I’ve never actually had the chance to use it, I’m not sure. So I was hoping some of you might be able to give me a little insight to see if this is a good choice to run with (I’m so hoping it is – I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now!)

Basically, it’s a Member-managed site. BuddyPress seems to fit in perfectly with what this woman wants to do – enabled private messaging (which she will need) and have individual private areas. She’s wanting to use the WordPress site as a more effective way for her to communicate with her clients on a case-by-case basis.

She would like to have the ability for her clients to “pay for a subscription” online through the site, and when they do, they will get a “blog” for their use, and the private messaging center and all that.

The question comes in here: 1) the “blogs” need to be kept private. Only the client who writes the log for that day, and the lady who’s running the site, should be able to see these posts. The “blog” will not even really be a regular blog – it’s a tracking system for her clients. They put in some particular information, and she goes in and evaluates the info – then she sends them files that are her recommendations. These activities are not meant to be made public for *all* members to see – just her and that individual. and 2) *can* you “monetize” BuddyPress in this way? I was thinking it might be easier if she just has the client fill out a form, pay through PayPal and when she gets notification, she sets them up with their own “blog” manually. Is this possible? Or are there better ways around it? (like some kind of plugin that will notify the end user that their subscription is about to expire, and if they don’t renew, then they are locked out?)

I’d appreciate any insight into this. I’m not looking to have anyone do the work *for* me – I’m just curious if BuddyPress would be a good match for this type of system, or if I should go another route.

Thanks!