Publishing news on the internet has been happening for a long time. Personally, I have been reading the news online for about 22 years now. During the initial days of the internet, publishers struggled to generate revenue from their content online. While it did take some time, digital publishers eventually managed to introduce paywalls in a way that could support their business. It was discovered that many consumers preferred a one-time interruption with a paid subscription option than to constantly have their field of view interrupted with ads. Netflix proved to the industry that users would gladly pay for a free content experience if the content has value. Leading content publishers like the New York Times have taken notice and followed suit.

In that spirit, here is the best way to implement a paywall that customers will like.

What is a Paywall?

The Nami platform will help you take control of your app sales experience. Of course, this often revolves around implementing a paywall. For those new to the term, paywalls are a specific type of call-to-action (CTA) that is asking your users to make a purchase in your app. This is the visual representation of your paid products shown to your users.

Before Nami, paywall screens were often hardcoded into the app itself. This required a significant amount of developer time for testing, implementation, and ongoing maintenance. Nami shifts the management of your app’s paywall to the cloud. This frees up your development team to spend more time working on the app itself.

Let’s look at an example of a basic paywall layout and some of its configurable elements:

Changes to the marketing copy or artwork can now be made instantly. There is no need for an app update or a submission for an app review. You can now offer up a choice of products for sale and change them anytime with just a few clicks. With the paywall now securely managed from the cloud by Nami, you will have the opportunity to experiment with multiple paywall styles, messaging and more.

Creating A Smart Paywall with Nami

First, navigate to the Nami Paywall Creator page where you will have the choice to begin with the paywall creator or a custom portal for paywalls. This is where you will begin by naming your paywall. This will be the identifier throughout the Nami Control Center, though not visible to your app’s end users.

You will now have the opportunity to input the following:

• Content – Title and Body: the title text is the key headline and the body is reinforcing text.‍
• Products – You will add your list of in-app purchase products here.‍
• Look & Feel – Upload your background artwork here. ‍
• Controls – Sign-in to bypass paywall, Restore a previous purchase, or whether Close should be enabled‍
• Legal – Time to input your paywall legalese including Purchase Terms, Terms of Use and a Privacy Policy.

Paywall Preview

You have the option anytime to preview your paywall as it will run on your app. Toggle between phone and tablet mode to verify changes in how content is displayed. Dark mode is also available as a display option for you to review changes between light and dark appearance. Keep in mind that the paywall preview is running in a browser, not in native app code. It is intended to be a close approximation of how the paywall will look in your app.

In your paywall’s Overview tab, you have the opportunity to review your paywall’s status. This status is here to help you make sure that you don't accidentally try to use a paywall in your app when it isn't fully ready to go. Three indicators will guide you to where your app is along in design; Fully Configured, Minimally Configured and Not Configured. Details are explained further here.

For developers requiring a highly customized look and feel, fear not, Nami’s linked paywalls provide the same flexibility to make changes instantly to key paywall elements, while allowing a more customized look and feel.

Last Notes

There you have it. A pain-free cloud-based solution that you control from A to Z. Now that you’ve got your first paywall up and running, iterative changes will be easy to implement. Nami’s paywall creator is ultra-flexible, customized and designed to work with all app platforms so that your teams can remain focused on the core business. Best yet, it's a native UI control so you're still delivering a high quality user experience. Get some inspiration at our paywall gallery, then begin designing your first paywall today.