How to Monetize Your Content with a Video Paywall?
Published On May 8th, 2024 Streaming & Monetization
Digital content comes with various opportunities for monetization and letting businesses make income from it. Video paywall solutions turn this digital content such as videos and blogs into a source of revenue. Now if you ask “what is a paywall” or “how does it work,” in simple words, a paywall is a method that restricts the content from getting accessed by anyone who hasn’t paid for it.
With video paywalls, you can set your content to be premium and only accessible by viewers who pay for it. There are different kinds of video paywalls and different platforms that let you utilize these platforms.
Today, we’ll discuss the most common paywalls you can implement and monetize your video content with. You’ll also get an idea about some platforms that make these paywalls available.
Table of Contents
What is Paywalled Content?
Paywalled content is the content that becomes accessible only after paying for it. This content can be anything from videos to podcasts, ebooks, or any digital content. Such content is produced by content producers and hosted on online platforms. Viewers or users who want to access this content pay the fee and become authorized to access it.
Benefits Of Using Video Paywall Solutions
Let’s learn why video content producers use a video paywall to provide their content.
➡️ Generate Income
The first and foremost reason is to generate income, as the video paywall helps content providers earn. The paywall makes it mandatory for viewers to make a payment in order to gain access.
➡️ More Control
Video paywall lets content creators decide the audience they want to give access to. Since the content must be purchased or subscribed to stream, it keeps all unauthorized users at bay.
➡️ Right Engagement
With a video paywall, you get to know the audience willing to pay to stream your content. This also allows you to behold your viewers better so you can come up with similar kinds of content in the future.
➡️ Community Building
Since a video paywall brings a particular audience together, it lets you build a community with them. This community can engage and share ideas together; you can also promote your upcoming video content with this community.
➡️ Data Collection
A video paywall attracts an audience interested in paying and streaming your videos. With every payment made, you get to collect the user’s data, such as their engagement and behavior while streaming your videos. This data can unlock many important insights you can utilize to improve your data and marketing strategy.
➡️ Retargeting
Since the video paywall makes it mandatory for users to enter their details, such as their email address, the same can be used to retarget. For example, you can use the given email address in your email marketing campaign to target your users for upcoming or similar videos.
➡️ Improved Authority
You can host video content you have expertise in through a video paywall. When the same content gets streamed by viewers, it confirms their preferences for your content. By regularly producing the videos and getting them streamed, you set up your journey toward establishing yourself as an authority.
➡️ Improved Brand Image
Undoubtedly, content production gets your brand the needed recognition, and a video paywall ensures that this recognition comes from the right audience. The regular production and streaming of the videos ensure the improvement of your brand image.
How To Choose The Right Paywall?
When it comes to putting your video content behind a paywall, there are many options. As a first-time user, it’s natural to feel dubious about choosing the right one. For this purpose, we bring you the most common paywall types you can read and get more clarity about. At last, you will be able to decide which paywall you should go with or if you wanna have a blend of paywalls.
1️⃣ Hard Paywalls
Hard paywalls restrict the access to premium content entirely. Only when a user pays for it can they access the content. However, hard paywalls can only be applied to exclusive content and that something similar is not available anywhere else. You should also have an existing loyal fanbase to implement this paywall.
2️⃣ Metered Paywalls
Metered paywalls provide access to premium content to some extent. For example, you can limit your viewers to stream 5 videos per month for free and provide the rest for a fee. Based on the analytics and other data collected, you can determine if metered paywalls are the right choice. Medium.com is one of the most popular platforms that utilize a metered paywall.
3️⃣ Freemium
A freemium model comprises both free and premium content. Most of the content remains available to be streamed for free, while some of it requires payments. This option lets the content providers test the waters by which they get to know how many of their viewers are willing to pay for the premium content. If the result stays positive and in favor, the content creators can keep more of their content under the premium category.
4️⃣ Data Walls
Data walls are useful for letting you collect first-party data directly from your visitors. In such a paywall, the prompt shows up between the content. If a viewer wants to stream the video further, they have to provide the asked information, such as their name and email address. You can then use this data to target the viewers in your sales funnel.
5️⃣ Adblock Wall
While dealing with audiences from different demographics, content producers also come across audiences that use ad blockers. By utilizing an ad block wall, you can make your viewers realize how advertising is essential for your business and motivate them to remove your website from the blocker.
6️⃣ Micropayment
As the name implies, the micropayment paywall refers to the users paying a micro or very tiny amount to access the services. So, instead of paying for a service in dollars, your viewers can pay you a few cents and start streaming the videos. This paywall doesn’t help you much with generating revenue; however, it can help you understand your audience more and the potential of your content.
Why Should You Start Using The Paywall?
Video streaming platforms are popular now more than ever, and undoubtedly, they will be used even more.
These video platforms employ different paywall options and revenue methods; they let you host videos online and live stream 24/7.
By using paywalls, businesses can unlock their earning potential while taking their brand image to the next level using video marketing and similar practices.
These reasons make it the right time to consider using a video hosting platform and its paywall options.
Instances Where Video Paywall Helps You Monetize
Paywalls restrict visitors from accessing your videos without making the payment. This makes paywalls worthwhile as they bring the fruit of your endeavor through financial growth. Let’s see different instances or events where a paywall can be implemented-
▶️ Hybrid Events
These events take place both physically and virtually. The audience can attend them by visiting the physical location or using their phones to stream it. In such events, businesses can charge their audience by implementing a paywall and letting them pay to stream these events.
▶️ Virtual Music Shows
Virtual music shows or concerts are another instance where a paywall can be used. Virtual music shows liberate the creators to join a vast range of audiences that they would have missed otherwise. In such virtual shows, creators can charge the ticket price and earn money whenever someone buys a ticket.
▶️ ESports
Video paywalls can also be used when you want to provide esports to stream. In online sports matches, you can ask viewers for a particular amount of fee to pay before they can stream the content.
▶️ Conferences
You can also invite participants to the business conferences and let them access it by paying the fee.
5 Best Paywall Solutions For Businesses
Now that you know how setting up a video paywall before your premium content can help you financially, it’s time to make yourself aware of the available platforms that offer you paywalls.
#1 Adapty
Adapty builds in-app subscriptions for your audience who stream your video content via apps. Businesses can integrate in-app purchase options and motivate their viewers to make the payments. To use the app, you can access the free version or pay the premium to unlock more features. With the premium version, you can use Adapty for higher MTR, running paywall tests, and more integrations.
#2 Leaky Paywall
Leaky Paywall serves those who rely on their WordPress platform. Businesses can have the integrations to their WP site and create a more premium experience for their readers. With this platform, you can integrate paywalls with different access levels, giving you more control and experimentation. Dynamic targeting lets you target readers at the right time with the right thing, inspiring them to choose your subscriptions.
#3 MemberGate
MemberGate helps you earn via recurring payments that you can charge on your video content. The platform also lets you develop and manage a subscription platform where you can choose memberships to earn and grow. Additionally, there are tools to automate publishing, signups, and renewal notices to manage your media better.
#4 MPP Global Solutions
This one brings businesses subscription solutions through which they can monetize with paywall. Here, you can have hard, soft, or metered paywalls and unlock your maximum earning potential. Their eSuite offers various operations from one centralized location. Businesses can use the platform to create subscriptions and billing, minimize churn rate, monitor performance via analytics, and much more.
#5 Pelcro
Pelcro is another subscription management solution that lets you integrate with multiple CMSs. The platform allows businesses to create different paywalls to test which works best for them. While creating these paywalls, you can implement various filters to select a more specific audience. Other than subscriptions, you can also manage memberships and donations on Pelcro.
Conclusion
If you create videos that have the power to captivate the audience’s attention, then you should consider having a paywall. You need to utilize a paywall that suits your viewers the most, or you can experiment with a few before you finalize the one. It’s advised to go for the demographics of those who visit your site; you will have a much clearer view regarding finalizing the paywall.
Kiruthika is a Senior Digital Marketer specializing in SaaS Marketing at GUDSHO, where she leverages her expertise to drive result-oriented strategies. With a passion for innovation, she has expertise in navigating the complexities of online marketing.
