Thought I'd share this with everyone -- free custom (i.e. your own domain, not Bitly, etc) short URL

4 replies
Hi folks,

I thought I'd share this with everyone. I imagine some of the people who have been here a while know about this already, but for the newbies, this may be a great deal: You can use the .tk domain, which is from a small chain of islands called Tokelau (they're technically under the protection of New Zealand, though they're way out in the middle of nowhere, halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii and the entire country is 10.8 square km spread over three islands with just 1,433 residents) for a short URL.

Anyway, the thing that's pretty cool is that they offer both paid and free short URLs. You can register a 4 character URL with them (and yes, blog.tk is taken) for free if it's not a URL which has value under their system (for instance, when I tried mony.tk I was told I'd have to pay around $300, but the URL I did register ultimately, dolr.tk for my personal finance website -- just say it out loud and you'll understand why I took it-- was available free). If you want less than 4 characters, you have to pay no matter what you order.

Now, there is a catch with free domains. You must have at least 25 unique visitors in a 90 period or you lose your domain. This means you'd better make sure you're getting at least 25 clicks in the course of three months.

You can also register your domains for a fairly modest fee. I have not seen anyone else offering short URLs for so little -- it's $19.90 for two years or you can get up to 9 years for $62.55. By comparison, I paid a little under $100 for my .com address for 10 years and thought I was getting a steal -- most of the ccTLDs, if they are available at all for purchase outside the countries they are assigned to (many aren't -- I tried to register fina.nc but you have to be a resident of New Caledonia to do so) are insanely expensive, often costing as much as $100-$150 per year.

Oh and the other catch with the free version is that while you have full rights to use the free domain for whatever you want, you are not registered with whois as the owner.

Anyway, registering avoids the problems of needing to get 25 unique visitors and also avoids problems with their deciding at some point in the future to stop offering the freebies. However, if you're just starting out, it can be a pretty good deal to get a short URL of your own as long as you know you have 25 people who can use the link every 3 months. Or at the very least, you'll get the three months to decide if you want to continue to use them.

Also, for those with Wordpress blogs, there is a plugin (I'm still trying to test it) which should theoretically work with your new domain name to create customized short URLs. It's called la petite URL.

Anyway, I hope someone finds that helpful.

Edit: I forgot to mention where you got to get the free domain. This is what happens when you write something when you're tired: Dot TK - Renaming The Internet

Eric
#everyon #free #share #short #thought #url
  • Profile picture of the author erichammer
    Quick update: the plugin works perfectly. All you have to do is select that you are using your own DNS server when you sign up for the domain name at dot.tk and then enter the domain server from your hosting company (if you're not sure what that is, just ask your hosting company -- the place where your website is hosted).

    Then, you need to enter the information about your new domain into your host's system and set up a redirect to have it redirect automatically to your regular URL. It's actually really simple to do but you can ask your hosting company if you're not sure.

    Finally, inside the plugin, you just enter the new domain name and voila -- after you hit publish, you have a short URL listed (it just lists the 5 letter code, so for example, on my most recent post, it gave me dxewd which I simply append to create
    http://dolr.tk/dxewd.)

    Reason you want to do this: using a free service for URL shortening means that you can't ever know for certain that your short URLs will still be around a few years down the line.

    If Bit.ly goes out of business for example (or Gaddafi decides to kick out American infidel countries from his country's ccTLD), then you are screwed. If you have your own short URL, you know it's secure (or at least more secure). Tinyurl did go out of business last year after all and left a lot of people with dead links on places like Twitter and other locations.

    Plus, it looks a lot cooler if you are able to find something that matches your niche and you are the only one who uses that URL. It gives you a more professional feel.

    Eric
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  • Profile picture of the author special_fx
    Hi Eric,


    Some real good advantages. On the other hand, I have to wonder if this is a case where free isn't really free. I mean why not just simply paying .99 cent for a .info domain name, redirect and /or cloak as needed and be done with it? Yes, not strictly free, but then again you have more control and you're freed from all the worries and restrictions you mentioned which could ultimately cost you more time and money.

    Seems like it could be a comparative hassle in the long run. After all, what's your time worth (certainly $.99 for a year)?

    What am I missing?.
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  • Profile picture of the author theantihype
    I still don't see how this is better than the truly free WP jetpack?
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  • Profile picture of the author Always-A-Warrior
    But if you pay, you get a lot more! When you pay you own the domain legally, you may sell or transfer your domain and you do not have the minimum user requirement of 25 hits per 90 days. Pricing starts at just USD 6.95 per year. It's all up to you!
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