The easiest way to get people to click on a link is to give them some incentive for doing so. How about a contest, where you can win a prize instantly? Incentive: check. Now where can a boatload of people easily click around on a lot of links? Ah, yes. Twitter.

So. We have a ton of people all in one place, lots of links, and an incentive for clicking on those links. Enter wi.nr. It’s a new URL shortening service that only shortens URLs for the purpose of sharing them on Twitter and getting people to click on them.

Every time you use wi.nr to shorten a URL, you are automatically entered to win a prize. Every time you click on a wi.nr link, you are again entered to win a prize. When your friends click on a wi.nr link through Twitter, they too are entered to win a prize. To further sweeten the deal, you win a prize when your friends win a prize through wi.nr.

As a mechanism for encouraging mass link clickage, wi.nr has a bookmarking tool to make the URL-shortening process as easy as possible. Click the browser add-on while you surf the web and your link will automatically be shared to your Twitter followers.

With all that clicking going on, I imagine there’s a low ratio for actual prize winners. But that won’t keep people from trying. If all they have to do is click a link, I imagine enough people will start increasing their Twitter activity (for a while, at the very least) in order to try their hand at a prize.

The methods used by wi.nr are somewhat questionable, and this is the case for most third party Twitter apps that either encourage spam, even in an indirect manner. Those Twitter apps that seemingly take advantage of the microblogging platform for the sole purpose of generating revenue also tend to receive a certain level of backlash from pundits and users alike.

It’s up to the end users how well wi.nr does, though I imagine a successful execution of wi.nr could find even more beneficial ways in which to incentivize these end users. Partnering with brands for special promotions could further legitimize wi.nr’s concept, and lure users in even deeper. The analytics wi.nr would be able to provide as a result could be valuable to brands and marketers wishing to run major promos through Twitter.