How many times have to wanted to have a password protected area to your site, or maybe a place where people could log in and access "pay only" content without having to worry that unauthorized people would be viewing it? Well, obviously, the answer is a member's only section of the site - but how do you make one? It's DevArticles to the rescue (once again)!

In one of their latest articles, Building a Members Area with PHP: Part 1/6, they start this series on building and integrating a section of your site that will allow you to restrict certain features and functionality to only those with a username and password in your system. They give you a class of code and some database structure to help you get started, but, like they say, Before I can begin, I need to explain some theory behind this idea – it's not just your average walk in the park. There are several ways of creating a secure login area.

Restricted user areas are becoming more and more where people are making the money on their sites. It allows them to have more control over the content and to provide extra/cooler features to customers.