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WPMUdev just came out with a fantastically brilliant plugin for anyone using WordPress.  It allows you to offer content on your website if someone shares it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Google Plus.

The brilliance in this is that if the title and teaser text of your article is enticing enough, you aren’t asking for “real money” from the user.  You’re simply asking for them to share your content.

BEFORE YOU EVER TOUCH THIS PLUGIN, think about what people WON’T share.  If they don’t trust you, don’t know who you are, worry about you spamming them or worry about what will appear on their social media profile…you’re wasting your time.

Here are the keys to success:

1. Establish credibility.  Be sure to reinforce who you are and your credentials in the teaser text of the page.
2. Write a creative Title.  This needs to not only be intriguing, but needs to be funny/catch enough that when shared others will be interested.  You have to walk a fine line here.
3. Don’t protect everything.  You don’t want your entire site to feel like a big marketing gimmick.  Be very selective of what pieces of content you protect.
4. Make it worth it.  If people do this once and find the content boring and a waste of their time, you lose the credibility you established in #1.
5. Monitor your brand.  Once you force people to engage you in social media, it’s your responsibility to monitor for mentions of your brand and to handle the interactions.  Don’t let people bad-mouth your name without a heart-felt, professional response.

Had enough of my babbling, download Pay with a Like and see how it goes!