As marketers have known for years, the best marketing is word-of-mouth. But allowing subscribers to share your paywalled content can be tricky — on one hand you want to let them do it, but on the other hand, you don’t want to corrupt your paywall.Some publications, like The New York Times, have chosen to allow any visitor from a social media site to bypass their metered paywall. But we like the solution the Wall Street Journal came up with.WSJ.com lets subscribers share an article with a friend via email. The referred friend then gets access to the article for seven days.

This is an ingenious idea that protects premium content while allowing subscribers to show-off that they’re knowledgeable and informed. It also lets the friend forward the link to more people, thereby letting a worthy story go viral.Now, good marketers know that they can’t transfer the friend’s email address to their prospecting list. But there’s nothing to prevent you from offering a trial offer at the bottom of the email!For more ideas on how you can acquire new subscribers, check out our latest release of marketing samples on our sister site, Subscription Site Insider.