Connecting Your Site to Benecaster

Connecting your site links your WordPress installation to your Benecaster account. Once connected, your subscribers can receive private feed URLs, your license is active, and your plan limits are enforced.

Each paid show gets its own connection — you can have one show connected while another is not.

Where the Connect Button Appears

The Connect to Benecaster button appears in two places:

Setup Wizard → Step 6 (Subscribers) — shown when you choose “Yes — I want paying subscribers.” This is the primary entry point during initial setup.
Settings → Shows → [Show] → Settings → Subscription tab — shown for any paid show that isn’t connected yet.

If the button is disabled with the message “Finish creating your show first,” save at least a show name in Step 1 of the wizard before clicking Connect.

How to Connect

Click Connect to Benecaster.
Your browser opens benecaster.com. Sign in to your Benecaster account (or create one if you haven’t already).
Click Authorize to approve the connection.
You’re redirected back to your WordPress admin and the connection is active.

The whole process takes about 30 seconds. If something interrupts it at any point, just click Connect to Benecaster again — each attempt is independent and safe to retry.

Set your password before you start

When you signed up, two emails arrived: your welcome email with the plugin download and these steps, and a separate one titled “Set your Benecaster password”.

Open the set-password one first. Signing up creates your account with a password nobody has seen, including us — so step 2 above is not something you can complete until you have chosen one. It takes about ten seconds.

That link is valid for seven days and works once. If it has expired, use “Lost your password?” on the sign-in page and a fresh one arrives. Nothing is lost, but the replacement lasts 24 hours rather than seven days, so use it the same day.

If you already had a Benecaster account and this is a second licence, no set-password email is sent — your existing password still works.

There is no link that takes you to the authorization screen directly. It has to start from the Connect to Benecaster button inside your own site, because your site is what supplies the details benecaster.com needs to identify it. Opening /connect on benecaster.com on its own reports a missing site URL — that is the page working correctly, not an error to report.

After a Successful Connection

A green notice confirms: “Benecaster connected — Show Name is now active.”
The show’s Settings → Subscription tab shows the connection details.
Settings → Account shows the show as Connected.
If you were in the Setup Wizard, the Continue button becomes available.

If Something Goes Wrong

Most connection errors are fixed by clicking Connect to Benecaster again — each new attempt starts fresh. The error message explains the cause.

Error	What happened	Fix
Invalid grant	The authorization step timed out or was used twice.	Click Connect to Benecaster again.
Site URL mismatch	Your WordPress address doesn’t match what Benecaster has on file.	Check Settings → General → WordPress Address, correct it if needed, then click Connect again.
Site verification failure	Benecaster couldn’t reach your site to confirm the connection.	See Connection Troubleshooting →
Rate limited	Too many attempts in a short window.	Wait a few minutes, then try again.
Access denied	You clicked Cancel on the benecaster.com authorization page.	Click Connect to Benecaster again.
Network error	A temporary network interruption.	Click Connect to Benecaster again.

Reconnect State

If Benecaster detects that the connection is no longer valid, it puts the affected show into reconnect state. You’ll see an admin banner:

Action required: Your Benecaster connection for Show Name needs to be refreshed. [Reconnect to Benecaster →]

Click the link in the banner and complete the connection flow. A successful reconnection clears the flag automatically. Reconnect state is per-show — other connected shows are not affected.

To disconnect a show, see Deactivating Your Site Connection →