Click Like to View This Content

Earlier today I had a vision. I saw a world where good blog content could be unlocked for a viewer browsing a website in exchange for clicking a Facebook Like Button. They could read a post excerpt or an introduction and if they wanted to read the rest of the article they would click the Facebook “Like” button to unlock it. I have tried a membership option where viewers can unlock content for a small price or even just for signing up with their email and have not had much success. The content that I have came up with is valuable but I don’t think that people are ready to pay for it. The current trend is getting more traffic to your Facebook Page. These thoughts led to the idea of having to click a Facebook Like button in order to view the content. I searched the Google’s and found nothing. Right after creating an Odesk.com project and clicking submit I realized something. I had already seen this, it just had a different name. It took typing out my need in an attempt to find a developer with time to program it for me to remember that I had seen this item available already. A more specific search and I found it.

Since I make a good habit of blogging about things I could not easily find I thought it would be a good idea to demo this concept here and give the answer away in exchange for a “Like.”

[wp-like-locker theme=”blue” url=”https://blog.jeradhill.com/click-like-to-view-this-content” message=”Like This Post To Unlock Step 1!”]

Ok so here is what I found. I am using WordPress and if you are too then this will be an easy install. The WordPress Plugin is called WordPress Like Locker available on CodeCanyon.net.

It was that simple. I had already purchased a plugin from this author which you have probably seen on my website.

Let me explain how to install this plugin (which only works if you have a Self-Hosted WordPress Install – Will not work if you have a WordPress.Com hosted account.)

Step 1: Purchase the plugin from CodeCanyon, currently $7.00 US – Download Link

Step 1a: After downloading it, unzip the file. Notice that there is a Documentation and a wp-like-locker folder.

Step 1b: (MAC) Right click on the folder named wp-like-locker and choose Archive. (PC) Use whatever software allows you to turn a folder into a zip file. I used to use Winzip but for all I know Windows now lets you zip a file with out extra software. Do a Google search for “How to create a zip file of a folder in Windows “Version” (replace Version with your version of Windows – ie. XP, Vista, 7).

[/wp-like-locker]

Step 2: Log into your WordPress Admin. Under the Plugins section click on “Add New”. Up at the top under the title “Plugins” click on “Upload.” Choose the zip file you just created in Step 1b. Click Upload.

Step 2a: Your host is probably “localhost” your username is the FTP username for your host account, the password is the password for that host account. This may be different from your WordPress login.

Step 3: Plugin is installed. You can view the documentation that came along with the plugin which will explain how to use it.

This plugin will allow you to hide specific content just as I did and will allow the reader on your blog to make that content viewable once they click on the “Like” button. Pretty cool!

If many of you find the install to be confusing I will record a video tutorial in the future to show how to install a plugin. Yes it will require the click of a “Like” button in order to view it. 😉