The goal of List Builder is simple: turn anonymous readers into known subscribers. It’s the core of the Publisher Flywheel.

However, as your publication grows, you might start seeing readers using fake names or "burner" email accounts just to bypass your meter.

How you handle this depends on the scale of the problem. Here’s our recommended strategy for managing your list hygiene.

1. A few fake emails? Do nothing.

If you see a few fake emails here and there, our advice is to stay the course. List Builder is designed for frictionless growth. If the vast majority of your signups are legitimate, don’t add friction for your real readers just to catch the 1% who are gaming the system. Keep your conversions high and keep moving.

2. The Professional Defense (Invisible)

If you’re getting a significant amount of spam and you want to protect your deliverability without slowing down your readers, use our Email Verification Service.

The Benefit: It’s completely invisible to the reader. It pings mail servers in the background to verify an address exists before the signup is processed.
The Cost: $49/mo. It’s the professional choice for publishers who want a clean list and a 100% frictionless user experience.

3. High Integrity Mode (New: OTP Verification)

If you are being overwhelmed by spam bots or "serial bypassers" and you need a way to stop them, we just launched OTP Verification for List Builder.

When you turn this on, a reader must enter a 6-digit One Time Password sent to their inbox to complete their registration.

The Benefit: It’s an airtight shield. It’s virtually impossible to bypass with a fake email, ensuring every name on your list is a real human with an active inbox.
The Trade-off: It adds friction. Readers have to check their email to get their code before they can finish registering and keep reading.

How to enable it:

To use this feature, you will first need the Double Opt In extension installed and active. Once that is set up, you can find the OTP toggle inside your List Builder settings. We recommend this for publishers who need to prioritize list quality and stop paywall gamers in their tracks.

Whether you want to keep your funnel frictionless or lock down your list hygiene, we have the tools to help you succeed.

Grow your email list 5x faster

Keep growing,
The Leaky Paywall Team

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