What if someone tries to get around the paywall?
The more you lock down your content the less Google and social traffic will occur. Most publishers are willing to accept that a small percentage of visitors work actively at getting around paywalls.
The success of a metered paywalls is typically tied to the ability to offer 1 or more free articles so that your content is fully indexed by Google and can be shared in social media.
Generally publishers are enjoying paid digital subscriptions by metering the content and understanding that a minority will download/share (good thing)/and get around the paywall any way they can. These readers will typically not pay to subscribe.
Things that are practical to help block getting around the paywall
- Use our IP Blocker which halts the ability for a visitor to switch or use incognito browsers.
- Locking down some 'subscriber only' content: Once you get digital subscriptions under your belt you may want to consider locking down content only for paid subscribers (special issue content, article categories, etc) or selling a Premium+ level that requires a higher level of payment for access to unique content.
- removepaywall.com and other bypass methods: If you hard lock an article from the start these methods will not let readers at your content. If the article has ever been available for free or metered at any point, it's been saved in the web archive like system they're pulling from and hard locking will not work.
- Password sharing can be restricted but creates some admin effort: https://leakypaywall.com/problem-password-sharing/
- One final thought: mobile apps are now preferred by 89% of readers for access to publications. If you offered apps to your readers it would increase the value of your publication (as well as increase in-app subscription purchases) and make it much more difficult to get around the paywall. Our UniPress app platform offers iOS and Android apps for your publication and integrates with WordPress, Leaky Paywall, and IssueM.
- Try not to worry about it. People that are bypassing paywalls generally won’t pay to subscribe. Your best subscribers don't have the time to be bother in 'getting around your paywall'