Preffered URL shortener? Bitly vs. Goog.gl

by techmann

Posted: 10 years ago 16 replies

INTERNET MARKETING

Has anyone noticed any benefits of one URL shortener service vs. another?
I use Bitly since it tends to be reliable and fast, but I've heard Goog.gl links are less likely to be blocked by ISPs.
If you have a preferred URL shortener service you use, especially in tweets, please explain why. Thanks

#bitly #googgl #preffered #shortener #url

Barry Unruh 10 years ago

I prefer to use one hosted on one of my own domains.

I use Pretty Link Lite Wordpress Plugin, but am about to upgrade to the Pro version to get the A/B Split testing function.

That way you are in control of your URL's, unless of course you are trying to hide your domain. I prefer to announce mine....
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Alexa Smith Banned 10 years ago

Originally Posted by techmann

Has anyone noticed any benefits of one URL shortener service vs. another?

Bit.ly is perhaps particularly dangerous and unreliable: The .ly domain space to be considered unsafe | :Ben Metcalfe Blog

Tinyurl has also had its disasters for many Warriors.

But in general, it doesn't matter much, either way: the important point is that it's completely unnecessary and inadvisable to be dependent on these notoriously dodgy third-party services with which so many marketers have had so many accidents over the years.

And don't imagine that the one called "goo.gl" will necessarily be any safer, better or longer-lasting than any others just because it's owned by Google: Google "additional services" like that come and go all the time and can easily disappear.

Methods like the one suggested just above by Barry (and others, too, which also avoid this unnecessary dependence) are far superior.
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- Adrian Jock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  Bit.ly is perhaps particularly dangerous and unreliable
  
  From time to time bit.ly is listed by various blocklists (Spamhaus and others). Then it's delisted. After some time it's listed again. Right now isn't listed by Spamhaus, but...
  
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  kilgore 10 years ago
  
  I use bit.ly and so far haven't run into any issues. One thing I like is that you can set up your own domain name to work with it for free. Thus a site like warriorforum.com might buy a domain warfrm.co and be able to generate short links like http://warfrm.co/sXkeGdq. Since it's a different domain name, it shouldn't run into that problem with the .ly domain names listed above (at least if you follow the instructions at How do I set up a custom short domain? -- if you set up your domain with a CNAME instead of an A record, all bets are off).
  
  This should also solve the problem of bit.ly links being blocked by Spamhaus or other services -- unless they're actually resolving the domain name's IP address, something I very much doubt they're doing, at least within the body of email messages which is where these links would be found anyway.
  
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  Adrian Jock 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by kilgore
  
  I use bit.ly and so far haven't run into any issues.
  
  This is the first time when a "Reply to thread" email notification from WF lands in my spam folder (Gmail). First time ever!
  
  Guess why... The message included the next reply. Yours. What was the problem? Well, my guess is... the links to bit.ly ...
  
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Vickcarty 10 years ago

I do the following and its working well with me so far and advice you to do the same -

1. Use Pretty link as it helps you promote your domain also and gives you more control on the URL shortening.

2 If you are not interested in using your domain name then use Google as it is the most trusted one.

I hope that solves your question!

Cheers!!
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yakim1 10 years ago

Boy are affiliates lazy. I never click on these links from these url shorteners.

Get your own hosting account,domain and use a simple redirect script to shorten your links.

Create a folder on your server named "r". This stands for redirects and you put all your redirects in this folder. This would make all your redirects look like...

http://YourDomain.com/r/ProductName

That is the way I shortened my affiliate links for years. It also makes it easy to find and use over and over again when needed.

I hope this is helpful,
Steve Yakim
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- Alexa Smith Banned 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by yakim1
  
  Boy are affiliates lazy.
  
  Indeed. Or just ill-informed.
  
  Call me patronising and judgemental, but I suspect that most of the people who use these things are "direct-linking", rather than listbuilding, anyway, and therefore make up the huge turnover of affiliates whose businesses never quite get off the ground, and they gradually drop out (sometimes pausing only to announce things like "ClickBank is all a scam, anyway" :p :rolleyes: ), their places continually being re-occupied, online, by a new "generation" of continually struggling affiliates, each repeating most of the mistakes of their predecessors.
  
  Originally Posted by yakim1
  
  I never click on these links from these url shorteners.
  
  Many people don't.
  
  I always think that their users probably have no awareness at all of how much traffic they're unnecessarily losing.
  
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  yakim1 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Alexa Smith
  
  Many people don't.
  
  I always think that their users probably have no awareness at all of how much traffic they're unnecessarily losing.
  
  The big problem with the people who use these link shorteners is that they don't do any preselling in their emails that have these links. They don't say anything about the product and the subject line is a blind subject that also gives your no clue about the product.
  
  Yet they want you to click on a link that also gives no information so you never know what you could be getting into if you were to click that link.
  
  Best regards,
  Steve Yakim
  
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yakim1 10 years ago

Here is the link to a simple redirect software that I created back in 2004...

EZ - Redirect Generator

I tested it and it still works on my 64 bit buss computer. When I created it I believe computers only had a 16 bit buss. I wanted to make sure it still worked before I gave it away.

It is an exe file so it will probably only work on a Windows PC.

The generator will create the html code for your redirect. Paste that code in a notepad file and name the file ...

ProductName.htm

Create a folder on your domain named "r", which stands for redirects. Put all your redirects in this "r" folder.

Your redirect link will look like this...

http://YourDomain.com/r/ProductName.htm

If you use tracking codes, your can use this to shorten your tracking codes.

I hope this has been helpful,
Steve Yakim
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daneelpeter Banned 10 years ago

YOU can use your own URL link shorter as websites are doing now a days if you have a domain and Hosting you can put JS code freely available on internet for getting URL shortner
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Ihate9to5 10 years ago

Create your own link shorteners don't use bit.ly or Goog.gl for your affiliate links or they will flagged as spam will cause your CTR (Click Through Rate) to drop.Make the link descriptive that your link is about.If you have Wordpress blog use pretty links.
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- YaniB 10 years ago
  
  I've stopped using Bit.ly a long time ago.
  I use domain forwarding now. Looks MUCH more appealing and professional.
  
  Yani
  
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talfighel 10 years ago

It doesn't make a difference which service you are using but there is one I like and it is called TinyURL.com.
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kilgore 10 years ago

I don't think it's a matter of being lazy. I mean, yeah I could code my own custom link shortner. But I could also host my own email and code my own webmail client. But why bother? Google Apps does the job for me just as bit.ly does the job for me. Then again, context matters: I wouldn't use bit.ly in an email, but we certainly do in Facebook and Twitter.

As far as people not clicking your shortened links, to me this would by symptomatic of a larger issue: if your customers don't trust you enough to click your links then you've got a bigger problem than figuring out what link shortner (if any) to use.
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- Alexa Smith Banned 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by kilgore
  
  if your customers don't trust you enough to click your links then you've got a bigger problem than figuring out what link shortner (if any) to use.
  
  And people who might or might not become your customers? There are even people in this forum using bit.ly links in their signature-files. Clearly it's costing them traffic (there are at least two people, in this thread alone, who won't click on them!), and probably they don't even realise it.
  
  Sorry if I sound churlish (which I probably do) but this thread doesn't quite represent the Warrior Forum "at its best", does it? Using these unnecessary third-party shorteners is all downside, compared with the better alternatives, one of which Steve Yakim has even kindly supplied in the thread; there aren't any advantages. Everything's opinion, but this is about as close as you're going to get, in a forum like this, to a question with an "objective, right answer". Sorry to be blunt, but that's about the size of it: either you understand the importance of being in control, yourself, of as much of your own business as possible, or you don't.
  
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