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Social paywall lets readers share articles instead of paying

Sharewall is getting readers to unlock premium content on a share-one-read-one basis.

The world of digital publication has been ruled by social media for a while now, with share figures and hits now used to set apart the powerhouses of journalism in the way that print circulation figures used to. But without resorting to lowest common denominator content and clickbait headlines, how can smaller online publishers compete? We’ve already seen paywalls used to generate revenue and now Sharewall is getting readers to unlock premium content on a share-one-read-one basis.

As it stands, publisher can either unsustainably give away their content for free or lock it up behind a subscription fee or pay-per-article basis, which can annoy loyal readers. Sharewall offers another solution — users get to read all the content they like, but in return they have to share an article from the same publisher on their social networks for each one they read. Readers benefit from free content while publishers get increased traffic, higher clickrates and ultimately bigger ad revenue and notoriety. The creators promise to deliver up to 32 percent increase in traffic, while website owners can also see statistics about which of their articles are popular, who’s sharing it and who’s interacting with it. The platform is easily integrated into any site, remaining fully mobile responsive for the increasing number of content consumers who read articles on their smartphone.

Considering typical paywalls often have the side-effect of diminishing traffic from non-paying readers, Sharewall instead manages to helps online publishers drive more traffic to their sites while also boosting revenue. Are there other tweaks to the paywall method that could benefit both consumers and businesses?