It would be interesting to see content posted with an attached pot, much like a bounty to read the content. There would have to be some way to ascertain it was a genuine click through and engagement before getting the payout. Maybe a captcha of some sort at the end of the content that poses a question about the content. If the reader engages, answers correctly, gets a payout _and_ likes the content, they could upvote to help reimburse the creator for establishing the pot. 

Buying votes seems too iffy for guaranteed engagement, if that is what people really want. Isn't the monetary value of the upvotes what gets a post pushed up in visibility, not the number of votes a post gets? If a post gets 100 upvotes that give it a $1 value, it is still less visible than the post gets with a single $2 vote, or am I wrong? I don't see a solution for that aspect of things.