What is Paywall? Here’s Everything You Need To Know

A paywall is a virtual barrier which restricts a user’s access to digital content and services. It is set up by online platforms such as e-magazines, e-journals, online newspapers, lifestyle apps and others to streamline their services. Paywalls are meant to incite users into making a one-time purchase or buying a subscription plan in order to access premium content or features.

If a user is navigating a freemium website or app, they are likely to encounter a paywall pop-up, requiring them to pay to enjoy the full functionality of the platform. Think of a famous news website for example. It offers access to a restricted number of free articles in a month. To read articles beyond the set limit, the users encounter a paywall, encouraging them to make a one-time payment or subscribe in order to advance.

Thus, paywall is how service providers ‘monetize’ their services. This monetization strategy is a smart way to grow a platform’s traffic, and to reel in more consumers.

In this blog, let us take a closer look at what does paywall mean, its types and purposes, and why it is a game changer for your company’s revenue.

How to Implement an Effective Paywall Strategy

A paywall is a digital wall between consumers and the content or service they wish to utilize, spurring them into making a subscription. That is all the reason why a paywall must be attractive enough to hook costumers. The perceived value of the content or services also significantly determines whether your user is going to make a purchase or not. To create an effective paywall strategy, it is essential to consider the user’s point of view of the process. If the users find navigating your paywall effortless, and if it guides them through the transaction process smoothly, your paywall strategy can be considered successful.

Strong paywall strategies include:

Optimized Timing of the Paywall Pop-up

Let your users navigate through your website and recognize the value of your service. Do not introduce them to your paywall before that, as it might discourage them from signing up. Rather, introduce it at that instance where the user engagement with your content is the highest. You might determine that instance through the layout of your content, or the number of scrolls the user does. Make sure that the paywall does not spring too late into action. It might be considered disruptive by that point, instead of stimulating. Another significant point to keep under consideration is that a paywall must never appear the instant a user opens your website. They cannot be expected to pay without even knowing about your services.

Give Users Insights into the Product

In order to ensure that your users would subscribe to your services, do not forget to show them what they are signing up for. Offer them a preview into your premium content or give them a time-limited free access to display the value of your product.

Offer Users Flexible Pricing Solutions

To cater to the needs of a wide audience, offer a range of pricing plans. These can include various subscription packages, such as monthly, quarterly, or yearly. You may offer them trail period as well so that the users can experience your premium services and decide to make a subscription.

Types of Paywalls

Various types of paywalls exist to fit your propose. The popular ones are as follows:

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Soft Paywall

A soft paywall enables your users to access the limited premium content that you want them to see. This allows them to witness the quality of your services which may motivate them to subscribe to your platform. A famous type of soft paywall is the ‘metered billing’ paywall.

Metered Paywall

If you want to give your audience an unforgettable taste of your services which makes them commit financially to you, offer them a metered paywall. A metered paywall enables the users to access the premium articles for a limited time before asking them to subscribe. Let’s say that the users can view 5 premium articles in a month. They cannot exceed this limit without a subscription. As a publisher, you can decide this limit by testing the number of articles offered to maximize the subscription rate among your audience. Users tend to find metered paywalls less disruptive as compared to the other paywalls.

Hard Paywall

A hard paywall restricts all sorts of access to the content behind it. Unless a user makes a subscription, they cannot view any of your content. Hard paywalls are usually difficult to manage, and are considered the riskiest as well. It is because the users get rarely motivated to subscribe to content they cannot preview. However, hard paywalls may be a good option for publishers who target a niche audience.

Porous Paywall

It is the kind of paywall which offers a generous number of premium articles in a given time period. It may also offer users a freemium access to the content. In any case, the porous paywalls allow exceptions to be made to the strict metered content limit.

Dynamic Paywall

A dynamic paywall is more personalized to the user experience. This is in contrast with the standard metered paywall which offers the same article limit to every user. A dynamic paywall is based on the individual data of the users. Behind this paywall runs the mechanism of identifying individual user behavior patterns so that it can offer a subscription more personalized to a user’s taste.

Multi-dimension metering (MDM) is an advanced version of the dynamic paywall. It does not ask the users to make a paid subscription at the very first step. Instead, it fosters visitor relationship through notifications, email signups, social follows, and more which engage the users in a smart way to boost revenue.

How to Get Past a Paywall?

There are a number of specific actions that users can take to get through a paywall:

Subscription

The most obvious way to access the content hidden behind a paywall is to subscribe to the publisher. The users select a subscription plan that aligns with their interest and budget the most.

Free Trials

Users can benefit from the limited free trials that are offered before they are asked to make a one-time purchase or a subscription.

Metered Access

As discussed above, metered paywalls allow the visitors to access a certain number of articles for free per month. Once a user has reached the limit, they either pay for more access, or they wait for the next month for the renewal of their free access limit.

Why Should You Integrate a Paywall?

Gone are the days when publishers used to rely on advertisements for generating revenue. Ads are not only an outdated source of revenue generation, but also disruptive for the overall user experience. On the other hand, levelling up with a paywall can prove to be game-changing for your company. Here are a few reasons why:

Monetization

With paywall integration, you can make money directly out of the product you’re dealing in, that is, your own digital content. Charge your users for access to premium content or services and create yourself a sustainable income flow.

Content Protection

Secure your content with paywall integration and restrict any unauthorized access. Minimize the chances of content theft and piracy, and ensure that your precious content is only available to those who pay for your services.

Quality Content

If your users are making paid subscriptions for your content, it would be your priority to ensure that only the best quality content reaches them. This fuels your publishers to create the best, well-researched and engaging content.

Audience Segmentation

Enable targeting your customers’ preferences and personalize your digital offerings and subscription plans accordingly. Giving your users an experience tailor-made for them encourages them to become loyal subscribers.

Skyrocket Your Revenue With SubscriptionFlow Paywall Integration

By now you know what a paywall is and what services it offers your publication company. It is now time to consider the most suitable paywall integration for your platform. SubscriptionFlow has got you covered on this! With our paywall integration, boost your revenue and manage your subscriber-base with convenience. SubscriptionFlow is here to ensure that you make the best out of your paywall integration.

These are some of the perks you benefit from through paywall integration with SubscriptionFlow:

Management of Recurring Subscriptions

Our paywall subscription management software allows hassle-free management of your recurring subscription payments. Let your subscription handling and checkout management run on automation, ensuring a quick and smooth payment experience for your customers.

Dynamic Pricing

Through our paywall integration, offer your subscribers a variety of priced subscription packages which cater to their individual preferences. SubscriptionFlow allows you to deal in the currencies of your choice, including cryptocurrencies to create a more personalized payment experience for your consumers.

Data-Driven Optimization

Our paywall allows you access to subscriber reports and analytics, which empower you to identify trends, so that you make informed decisions for your revenue growth. We also allow you to perform A/B testing which enables you to experiment with a variety of paywalls and subscription models, ensuring that you choose what resonates the best with your customer base.

Additional Revenue Options

Grow your revenue by offering a range of subscription options to your customers. These may include group subscriptions, gift subscriptions, pay-per-article, ad-free plans, trial/freemium subscriptions, donations, commenting access and more.

Customized Integrations

SubscriptionFlow offers you the option of connecting to multiple payment gateways and content management systems to improve the functionality of your subscription management process.

Personalized User Experience

Our paywall enables you to track subscriber data, and offer your customers personalized subscription packages, guaranteeing conversion optimization. You may offer discounts to your visitors who show an interest in your content to turn them into subscribers.

Conclusion

A paywall is a digital gate which restricts user-access to premium content and features. For a subscription-based business such as a digital publication company, paywalls are an optimum solution for revenue maximization. Choose a paywall type best suited to your purposes and level-up with paywall’s added advantages such as content monetization and audience segmentation. If you are looking to invest in the right paywall, Book a demo with SubscriptionFlow. Our paywall integration not only reduces your workload by automating subscription management, but also offers your subscribers a seamless payment experience encouraging customer retention.