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Use of Bitly

by China Newz
16 replies
When do you think it is best to use something that makes your URL shorter? What are some good examples? Is it mostly for cosmetic purposes? How do you use it for your blog? Know of Bitly. Are there others?
#bitly
  • Profile picture of the author 4kultrahdtv
    There are plenty of url shorteners,

    What do you intend to shorten? for example clickbank urls may not work with certain shorteners,

    They are used to tidy and make the link look cleaner, They can also be used for tracking purposes,

    If i have missed anything i am sorry,
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    • Profile picture of the author China Newz
      Originally Posted by 4kultrahdtv View Post

      There are plenty of url shorteners,

      What do you intend to shorten? for example clickbank urls may not work with certain shorteners,

      They are used to tidy and make the link look cleaner, They can also be used for tracking purposes,

      If i have missed anything i am sorry,
      Just trying to find out what they are used for and trying to find different alternatives.
      Signature

      China Newz

      China Newz is a blog introducing China's history, culture, people and places.

      www.chinanewz.com

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      • Profile picture of the author John Marshall
        Hi,

        I would take care about using URL shorterners is where you are relying on them for your business. This is because the service could go down or fail at any time meaning that your business will suffer.

        So, please be careful.

        John
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  • Profile picture of the author CherryAffairs
    Why not use a 301 redirect and setup your own shortener? You can name it anyway you wants it to be.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    bit.ly domain name is blacklisted by Spamhaus. You may not want to use it in your emails ;-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    Originally Posted by China Newz View Post

    When do you think it is best to use something that makes your URL shorter? What are some good examples? Is it mostly for cosmetic purposes? How do you use it for your blog? Know of Bitly. Are there others?
    you will find this post usefulHow To: Create Your Own URL Shortener - The Next Web

    But you can do it without scripts, buy the shortest domain you can and add it to your hosting account, then add a unique id at the end of it for each link you want mask. Like this... h**p://shorturl.com/go/2 then use a 301 redirect.for your affiliate link.

    (/go is a directory you installed on your server /2 is a particular link. (for example)

    To add a new link just add a new file to the directory i.e /3. Each file contains a small snippet of php code that is the redirect. Like this....
    <?php header("Location:"); exit(); ?>

    so the line of code would look like this in a file

    <?php header("Location:http://your-affiliate-hoplink-here"); exit(); ?>

    so when someone clicks on your link... h**p://shorturl.com/go/2

    they get redirected to...

    http://your-affiliate-hoplink-here

    The 301 can be done via cpanel in your hosting admin.
    Signature

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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Safe and sensible ways to shorten/cloak your url are ways that you control yourself, that operate through your own website.

      Not unnecessary and unsafe third-party services like bit.ly and tinyurl. Those are risky and very unwise. It makes little sense to let any aspect of your business be dependent for its longevity and security on an unnecessary third-party service.

      Countless Warriors have had accidents with tinyurl (in particular) and many similar services.

      Many people won't even click on bit.ly links at all.

      The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim3
    I forgot to add, never use bit.ly or any other url shortener, these services have been ruined by spammers. It is best not to use third-party shorteners at all but if you really have no choice use I believe you best choice would be goo.gl
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesBorg
    Originally Posted by China Newz View Post

    When do you think it is best to use something that makes your URL shorter? What are some good examples? Is it mostly for cosmetic purposes? How do you use it for your blog? Know of Bitly. Are there others?
    Limited space is one good example, Twitter coming to mind. But Twitter has its own shortener now.

    The problem with using them for cosmetic purposes is that a lot of people think a very short URL with an indecipherable string of random alphanumeric characters has a cosmetic advantage over ANY long URL. There are longer but more meaningful URLs that are going to be more compelling and engender more trust.

    When I use URL shorteners, I prefer going with the option to have a custom string rather than the random alphanumerics.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fazal Mayar
    Short links are prettier and can mask a link easy. THere is also ad.ly i think
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    Blogger at RicherOrNot.com (Make Money online blog but also promoting ethical internet marketing)

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  • Profile picture of the author gwpmike
    I use PrettyLink and I highly recommend it. Some sites won't allow bit.ly although it is a pretty good tracking services. I have just started posted youtube videos with descriptions containing a link that I shortened with bit.ly. But for everything else besides YouTube, I would recommend a different link shortener such as pretty links. (Then you can shorten your links with your domain, and it has pretty good tracking information too).
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    • Profile picture of the author ChristianSites
      Several studies have shown that url shorteners increase retweet probability on Twitter - that's the only reason I use them.
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  • Profile picture of the author doraemi
    Previously when I first got started, I use pretty link wordpress plugin. Had tried bit.ly but having problem with them. After I am back in IM, now I am using paid version known as click.org, recommend by my fellow warrior.
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  • Profile picture of the author MichaelBartley
    i definetly recommend pretty link. I use all of the time. And plus using a shortener masked with your domain is the safeist way anyway. You can track hits, geo location, and group links together. It is really good to use inside of your WP dashboard.
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    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      And just to chime in unfortunately even if you use bitly to change your links
      to Amazon.to links you could have trouble as it tracks links. Amazon TOS does not allow for link tracking. Use Amazon's tools including their link shortener instead.
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      Pen Name + 8 eBooks + social media sites 4 SALE - PM me (evergreen beauty niche)

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  • Profile picture of the author djneill
    clickmeter.com is a shortner I used at first now I have a full tracking software.

    The shortners are used when links are banned from certain sites or to track clicks.

    It's good to track everything otherwise you're running blind and it'll get you no where, but I would also suggest a premium tracker like quality click control.
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