1. Visit "The Wall"
On each registered site, The Wall will show per activated article. Depending when you visit, it may be free or it may have a cost to remove it.
Finally, an answer to subscription fatigue.
We're here to change reading and writing online.
Join the revolutionary network connecting publishers and readers. Experience the freedom of pay-per-article access; a flexible and sustainable way to discover and support quality content.
2. Top up your account as needed
Quickly and securely purchase tickets in bulk. Ranging from 20 to 500, these tickets can be redeemed against any article on the PaperWall network.
3. Find more at the Discover Feed
Using the powerful and customizable aggregator, discover articles matching your criteria based on publication, authors, categories and tags.
Quick and easy integration
Register your site with only a few lines of code, followed by a quick verification of ownership. Configure each article with discoverability, look and feel, thresholds and pricing.
Get paid out monthly
For each article that a reader has engaged with, those redeemed tickets are translated into money that goes directly to you - the more successful your articles, the more you get paid out!
Increase your reach
Add your publication to the highly customizable aggregator, the Discover Feed. Categorize your site, allow articles to be discovered, create a new channel to your publication.
We're still in PRE-ALPHA where some core functionality is still being built out, but are working hard to make this project a reality.
Get notified about developments, ask burning questions, or tell us what you think.
Let
us know you're interested, as either a reader or a publication.
PaperWall is available in a limited capacity. See how it works and looks on your site without letting the public see it. Have your say and be part of this project!
How does PaperWall work?
- Writers or publications will register with paperwall.io by adding some code to their site. After ownership is verified, pricing, thresholds and other options are configured per article. There is a preview mode to make sure everything works as expected. When everything is ready, the site is then published and all the activated articles will show The Wall.
- When a reader visits an activated article, The Wall will be shown. Depending on how the article has been configured, the reader may need to use tickets to access the content. If they don't have enough tickets in their account, they can quickly purchase some from paperwall.io and return to the article.
- Login is only required once per browser. Every registered site will be able to see your logged in status and balance. The Activity Page shows the articles you've visited and tickets you've purchased, ensuring secure transactions and credit-card handling.
How does this increase discovery?
The Discover Feed, is an algorithm that determines the latest, popular articles based on engagement, activity and ratings (when available). Sites are categorized and individual articles tagged to help with curation.
You can create a Following Feed, which allows you to save filters against content you're interested in. It can be filtered on category, tags, sites, authors. When matching content shows up, you can get notified.
How does the pricing work?
Publishers will register their site against PaperWall and configure pricing and thresholds per article. Tickets are the center of the transactions. Articles are expected to be priced at 1-5 tickets per article. Readers can purchase tickets in increments of 20-500 at a time. From there, when a user visits an article, they redeem the tickets against the article in question. On a monthly basis, the publishers will be paid out the number of tickets redeemed against their articles.
The reason to use tickets instead of dollar amounts is the flexibility it provides: it's a more seamless flow than requiring a credit card each time, discounts are provided when more tickets are purchased in greater quantities, and there is room for occasional promotions and bonuses.
What are thresholds?
Thresholds provide the chance to validate each article. When a threshold is in place, tickets are only required after a condition is met: visits, days or rating score. This is shown on The Wall so that readers can get a sense of the quality and popularity of an article before committing.
What is the refund policy?
If you are not happy with a transaction, or it happened in error, there is a refund policy. You can submit a request to get the credits refunded per article, which will be addressed within 48 hours. However, if this happens too frequently, your account could be suspended and reviewed for fraudulent activity.
- Every time I run into an article behind a "subscribe now" paywall, I'm more convinced this is a good idea.
- Dan, a skeptic