We’re excited to introduce the biggest update to the Coil Web Monetization plugin since we unveiled it in the spring of 2020! The new plugin has a variety of great new features to help you monetize your site, promote the usage of Coil to garner more support from your community, and customize the experience for your paying supporters.

What's New?

More Intuitive Dashboard

We wanted to make it easier for new and existing users to navigate all of the features the plugin has to offer. The new dashboard offers a more intuitive experience to manage which features you want to turn on or off, along with explanations of what each feature does.

When you install the plugin, simply click on the Coil menu item to experience the new dashboard.

New Customization Controls for Exclusive Content

We added customization options to the plugin to help you create an exclusive content experience that aligns with your site's look and feel, including but not limited to:

• Control over the title and messaging for non-paying members
• A dark and light theme
• The ability to show your site's logo on the exclusive content message
• A new collection of badges to tack onto your exclusive post titles

With these options, your audience will enjoy a consistent Coil experience but with a familiarity native to your site's branding.

Exclusive Content Divider

Up until now, managing which content was exclusive to paying Coil members was a combination of too flexible (e.g.: control over the content on a per-block basis) and too stringent (e.g.: only showing the post excerpt to users who aren't Coil members).

To improve this experience, we decided to create a brand new block, dubbed the Exclusive Content Divider. With this block, you’ll have optimal control over where your exclusive content begins. You can use it to hide any content beneath the divider according to your exclusive content settings.

Below is a short video we put together to show its usage:

Streaming Support Widget

We also added a way for you to encourage your audience to support you through Coil by adding the Coil-branded widget to selected post types.

With this dismissible and customizable widget, paying Coil members will be thanked for their contribution, while non-paying users will be prompted to become Coil members to support your content.

Just like the exclusive content message, we included some really cool customization options for the widget, including a light and dark theme, positioning controls, padding, and messaging for paying and non-paying states.

We created a short video to show off the customization:

How can I get the Coil plugin?

As of today, you can download the plugin from the official WordPress directory. You can also access it by going to your WordPress dashboard under Plugins > Add New and searching for the "Coil Web Monetization plugin".

Where can I find help?

We just updated our documentation to help you navigate the changes.

We'll be at WordCamp, come and say hi!

Our WordPress team is attending WordCamp Europe 2022 to hang out with the community and answer any questions you might have around Web Monetization and the Coil Plugin. We hope you’ll swing by to say hello, check it out, and grab some swag!

What's next?

You tell us! We'd love to learn what features will help you monetize your content or optimize the Web Monetization experience. We're excited to hear your feedback on the new plugin. We had so much fun building it and can't wait to make it even more awesome!

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