Should You Gate Your Blog Content? |

Ryan Biddulph January 30, 2024 blogging tips 🕑 5 minutes read

Opotiki, New Zealand

Should you gate your blog content?

As more major media channels adopt a gated model it seems some bloggers chose to follow their lead.

Gated content appeared to be all the rage a while back. Bloggers decided to largely pump their brakes over the prior year.

But seeing an inexperienced blogger gate a recent post goaded me to write this piece for you. Newbies usually make a number of rough plays from the git-go. Gating content seems ambitious but proves to be a bone-headed blogging play at the outset of your career. More on this later.

I will offer my personal guidance below.

However, breaking down who should and should not consider gating blog content guides you to make a confident decision.

Every blogger walks a different path. Some can benefit from this strategy. Others have no business even thinking about going this monetizing route.

What Is Gated Blog Content?

Before we dive into the blog post, you may wonder:

What is gated blog content?

Gated blog content is content sitting behind a paywall. Readers need to pay to access the content.

Sounds sweet, right?

Hold your horses buddy. Gated content works well only for specific bloggers.

Placing your content behind a firewall may just be the biggest blogging mistake that you can ever make, based on certain factors.

Weigh out the pros and cons of gating blog content to make a wise decision for yourself.

Yes

Large Loyal Tribe Built In

Major media streams boast large, loyal tribes.

In laymen’s terms, a crap load of people follow these channels closely. A high number of those loyal folks will pay the subscription fee to generate heavy income for the company.

As for individual bloggers, you better sport a massive, loyal tribe before considering this model. The main reason comes down to the basic payment structure.

Subscriptions range anywhere from $1 USD to a bit more per month for gated content. Do the math. How many subscribers do you need to make even $100 per month?

Gating blog content can work for experienced bloggers driving many thousands of rabidly loyal readers per month to their blog.

A decent chunk of these readers will pay to unlock the content.

If you find yourself seated in these heady blogging circles feel free to consider gating your content.

Secondary Income Stream

Placing your blog content behind a paywall works as a secondary or even tertiary income stream.

Charging a few dollars per month generates a modest income at best unless you drive an incredible volume of blog traffic.

Open primary income streams like:

creating and selling blogging courses
coaching
consulting
freelancing

to make the lion’s share of blogging income.

Add a subscription income stream to augment the prime sources of blogging income.

No

New Blogger

New bloggers need:

skills
credibility
exposure

to begin driving quality blog traffic.

Publishing fresh, targeted, thorough content frequently is the way to increase skills, credibility and exposure.

You cannot gain this blogging trio any other way if you think even a few moments about it.

Beginner bloggers; never gate your content. This form of self-sabotage – although rare – robs you of the the quality traffic you need to begin making money.

People wondering who you are as a newbie will barely give you a second thought on seeing a paywall.

Publish oodles of helpful blog posts as a beginner blogger.

Aim for one long form post weekly.

Never gate blog content; begin driving quality traffic to your blog.

First, you need quality blog traffic.

Expect to publish thorough content for years before receiving a heavy volume of targeted traffic to your blog.

Low Traffic Blog

I came across a relatively unknown blog a few moments ago.

After clicking on the promising blog post title I stumbled upon gated content.

Bad idea.

This low traffic blog lowered traffic even more by turning down exposure to possibly net a buck (highly unlikely via a low traffic blog) versus gaining exposure for free.

Low traffic blogs need:

exposure
credibility

to become high traffic blogs.

Gating blog posts dramatically reduces exposure and credibility for low traffic bloggers because you’re working with only a small readership as it is.

You’re not ready yet. You’re not big enough yet.

Remember that Facebook movie? The tech titan guy noted how Facebook simply wasn’t big enough for Mark Z to take on investors. He goaded Z to keep the platform free in order to gain massive, viral exposure. Going titanic – in a good way – meant virtually unlimited monetizing potential.

You need to get really big in quality traffic terms to gain significant subscription income.

Monetizing through subscription models proves to be a hopeless task when you have so few readers to offer the subscription to; most will leave to visit blogs from your niche offering free, detailed, targeted blog posts.

Little Reader Loyalty

Even high traffic bloggers should think twice about gating blog content.

You will lose a hefty chunk of lukewarm readers and keep only a few loyal followers by gating blog posts.

If most of your readership comes and goes you still have not earned their trust. Adding a paywall sends many of these casual readers headed for the cyber hills.