Everyone wants to make money. And for those who are constantly creating new content, there may come a time when you seriously looking at monetizing it. At the same time, the when, where and why baffles you and you are not sure what next steps should be.

In episode 142, I asked Kyle Maurer from Sandhills Development to join me and share what he has discovered when it comes to dropping your content behind a paywall. He is part of the team behind the plugin Restrict Content Pro, and has spent a lot of his time on this, which he considers one of his favorite subjects.

Kyle shared his thoughts on:

• What content creators should be considering when it comes to content paywalls and the long-term.
• The balance you should strive for between offering free and paid content.
• Choosing the best medium to meet your own goals.
• The pros and cons of moving out of your comfort zone to branch out into other models and mediums.
• What the plugin Restrict Content Pro brings to WordPress users when it comes to monetizing your content.

Bob: Hey, everyone. Welcome to Episode 143. BobWP here, and today I have a very special guest, a good friend of mine and an eCommerce kind of guy.

Kyle Maurer join us today. He’s with Sandhills Development. They do a bunch of awesome eCommerce plugins. How are you doing today, Kyle?

Kyle: I’m great, Bob. I’m so excited to be on your awesome show. Thanks for having me.

Bob: You bet. It’s never been called an awesome show before. I’m going to make sure and not take that particular word out, because this is a first. I’ve got to take what I can get.

What we’re going to be talking about today is putting your content behind a paywall. We will be touching on your plugin, Restrict Content Pro, that you are involved with at Sandhills Development, probably throughout. We’ll focus a little bit more on that towards the end.

But I wanted to start with someone who might say, “Hey, I’m a content creator. I want to start monetizing my content.” What should they initially think about? Because there’s going to be long-term benefits or consequences. What is possible with content paywalls? Can you give us a general overview to get us sliding into this?

Kyle: Yeah, there’s a lot to consider, of course. I’m sure anybody in this position is, if they’ve started to look into it, probably feeling overwhelmed with the amount of options and routes they could take.

I think the tip that I would provide, or the first step that I would recommend to anybody I care about in this position, would be to monetize as soon as possible, and do that starting small.

If we’re assuming that this someone has free content already, and they’re trying to take the step into monetization, I think I would definitely recommend that you do that as quickly as possible. Don’t wait. Don’t try to build something more elaborate with which to monetize.

Instead, try to find some small value-added to introduce as early as possible, and possibly even just for a very nominal cost, as a way of beginning the walk down that path towards monetizing your project. We could go over examples, as well, if that’s …

Bob: Yeah, oh, I’d love to hear some.

Kyle: Say you’re a blogger, and you write a lot of articles. It wouldn’t be, then, extremely complicated for you to begin to add a new value-add to present to your audience. This could be creating an ebook or something from your content, a