Article configuration
Adding articles, setting prices, and choosing when the wall begins charging.
Adding an article
In the site editor, enter a URL under your site's domain in Add article by URL and select Add Article. Paperwall fetches the page, reads its title, description, and image, and adds it to your article list.
An article that Paperwall cannot read is recorded with the status NOT_FOUND
rather than accepted, so the problem is visible before a reader encounters it.
Article status
PENDING— added, not yet published on Paperwall.LIVE— the article can be walled and paid for.RETIRED— no longer offered.NOT_FOUND— Paperwall could not fetch the URL. Check the URL, and on Ghost sites confirm the post is published rather than a draft.
An article earns only while both it and its site are LIVE.
Article details
Select an article and open Edit. These fields describe the article itself, and are separate from what the wall charges.
Image
The preview image used wherever Paperwall represents the article — the discover feed and the wall. Taken from the page when the article is added; replace it by entering another image URL.
Title
The article's name as readers see it in Paperwall. It does not change the headline on your own site.
Excerpt
The short summary shown beneath the title in the discover feed and on the wall.
Reading time
Estimated minutes to read, shown to readers deciding whether to unlock. Leave it empty to show nothing.
Show ratings
Determines whether readers who have paid may rate the article. Turning it off disables ratings everywhere the article appears: in the supplied integrations (the standalone embed and the Ghost embed) and in the discover feed. Existing ratings are kept but no longer collected or displayed.
Ratings also feed the rating score threshold, so disabling them removes rating score from the list of available thresholds — an article already using it falls back to a reads threshold.
Discover feed
Controls whether the article appears in Paperwall's reader discovery feed. It is enabled by default. Disable it for articles that should be walled but not promoted.
Wall settings
Select an article and open Wall Settings.
Threshold
The threshold determines how long an article remains free. Below it, readers read without paying and the article accumulates visits and reads. Once the threshold is passed, the wall begins requesting payment.
| Threshold | Charging begins | Default |
|---|---|---|
| No threshold | Immediately, for every visitor | — |
| Reads | Once the article reaches N reads | 20 |
| Rating score | Once the article's rating reaches N, on a 1.0–5.0 scale | 4.0 |
| Days | N days after the article was published | 3 |
Rating score requires Show ratings to be on. Approximately ten positive ratings bring an article to 80% of the scale. Unlike the other thresholds, it is driven by reader response rather than by counting.
The SDK can supply the reason an article is free, or has stopped being free, as text for your wall. See BYO Wall.
Cost
Set in tickets. Readers buy tickets in the portal and spend them per article. A
cost of 0 makes the article free regardless of its threshold.
Tags
Free-form labels used to organise your article list and to group articles in discovery.
Bulk edits
Thresholds and pricing can be applied to several articles at once from the article list. Use this to price an existing back catalogue.