Popular URL Shorteners For Redirecting & Tracking Affiliate Links

124 Comments

This is a guest post by Brankica Underwood of How to Blog Like a Star.

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You have probably noticed all the short and pretty links on different blogs and Twitter by now. Perhaps you’re unsure of which one you should use, or if it makes any difference.

But it does.

The main reasons people use URL shorteners are to make very long affiliate links shorter and prettier or to track clicks on the links, or both.

So here is a break down of the shorteners I am using and the reasoning behind it.

Clicky.me

This shortener is connected to Clicky Web Analytics and you must have an account with them to use it. You can register for it for free, and you can even use the Web Analytics feature for free for one site. It is a great service and I highly recommend it.

Clicky.me isn’t as busy as others so there is still chance you can get some really pretty links, for example I managed to get clicky.me/WPthesis for my affiliate link to the Thesis theme for WordPress, or clicky.me/wpstart for my affiliate link to Lisa’s WordPress Starter Guide.

This shortener has a tracking feature so you can see how many clicks each link received. Also, you can use it to shorten Clickbank links which is a big advantage over some other shorteners (more on that below).

Su.pr

This shortener is a part of StumbleUpon and you must have an account with them to use it. Registering an account is free.

There are some great features you can use with Su.pr:

  • you can just shorten the URL
  • you can write a tweet or a Facebook update with the shortened URL and send it out
  • you can schedule the tweet or the update for a later time

The absolute winning feature of this shortener — when someone clicks on an URL shortened with Su.pr, at the top of the screen they will have a StumbleUpon toolbar which increases the chance of the page being “Liked” on Stumble and going viral.

This shortener has a tracking feature and you can use it to shorten Clickbank links.

Goo.gl

Goo.gl is Google’s URL shortener and you do not need to sign into your Google account to use it. However, if you want to build your URL history (which you should), then sign in before you shorten your URLs.

This shortener does have a tracking feature but don’t use it to shorten Clickbank links because the URL will be disabled:

Bit.ly

Bit.ly or Bitly.com is probably the most popular and used shortener out there. You can use it without registering or logging in, but if you want to have the history of clicks and links you should create an account.

You can customize your URLs but since it is so popular you will have to be very creative to get a name that hasn’t been taken yet.

This shortener does have a tracking feature but don’t use it to shorten Clickbank links because people who click on the shortened version of the URL will get a big warning (and you probably won’t make a sale):

Other Options to Consider

Ow.ly is a shortener from HootSuite. You can use Hootsuite for free and they have a tracking feature for Ow.ly links.

Tiny.url or Tinyurl.com is a free shortener that you don’t register for. It doesn’t have tracking feature but it will let you customize the short version of URL if the “custom alias” hasn’t been taken by someone else.

Two WordPress plugins that will do this for you are Simple URLs and PrettyLink. Note that Simple URLs stopped working for me with the WordPress 3.3 update so be selective about using plugins as a solution for shortening your links, because there is always a possibility for them to break.

Share-a-sale shortener is the best thing you can use for Shareasale affiliate links. Shareasale is a big network with products for any niche and most of the merchants over there will even have deep linking options (linking to specific product rather than the home or sales page) so you can really put their shortener to great use.

Conclusion

Like it or not, you are probably going to end up using shorteners even if you don’t want to, for example when you tweet using HootSuite or some other management tool. So you might as well pick one shortener and use it all the time to track clicks on your links.

Another benefit is they help you memorize some of your custom affiliate links, like I can do with my Clicky.me examples above.

If you haven’t paid much attention to this before, the start of the new year is the perfect time to give these shorteners a try and start making your links look pretty and track your marketing efforts.

Brankica is a social media sharp shooter helping you learn how to blog and make some cash along the way.

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124 Responses to “Popular URL Shorteners For Redirecting & Tracking Affiliate Links”

  1. Harleena Singh Reply January 9, 2012 at 7:48 am

     

    Informative post Brankica & Lisa!

    I guess most of us must be using some of these, as I do use bit.ly and tiny.url, though the others I have seen quite a bit on Twitter- guess Hootsuites ones are rather common as well.

    However, I haven’t really paid much attention to the Shareasale shortners. Guess all this does create more of an awareness about what to keep a look out for this New year!

    Thanks for sharing :)
    Harleena Singh recently posted..My Father, My PrideMy Profile

  2. Euromillions Reply January 9, 2012 at 10:04 am

    Now here was me under the impression that a link shortening service was just that and nothing else.

    I tend to use Google Analytics to track the links people follow on my site going outgoing to somewhere else. By the same token if you’re the webmaster of a site you can track which link somebody followed to get to the page.

    However with Clicky.me tracking how many ‘clicks’ a link gets, it would be helpful if you’re not the web master of the site you’re linking to and/or are putting this shortened link on other people’s sites.

    I’m not a fan of having multiple analytics programs and Google’s interface suits me the most at the moment, however awareness of other services is certainly helpful.

    Indeed tinyurl will no longer be the “No-brainer default”.

    • Brankica Reply January 9, 2012 at 1:23 pm

       

      Glad you got something out of this :) Clicky.me is pretty cool for tracking, I sometimes shorten the same link several times so I put one version in the sidebar, one in the post and third in some other place and then track how each of those is converting while they are all leading to the same place. Let me know how this worked for you if you give it a go!

      • tom buck Reply January 9, 2012 at 4:05 pm

         

        this is my favourite use of link shortners, seeing how link positions on different sites, or different pages or even different spots on the same page affects click through and conversion. It’s amazing the varience we see. Thanks for this cool round up, some services there I haven’t used yet.
        tom buck recently posted..Loans to PaydayMy Profile

  3. Patricia Reply January 9, 2012 at 10:08 am

     

    Hi Brankica

    Great to see you here with a guest post. And very informative too. Learnt something new and as I know you enjoy tracking everything on your site; not surprised at how much you know about this topic.

    Thanks for sharing with us. Appreciated.

    Patricia Perth Australia
    Patricia recently posted..Changes at Lavenderuses.comMy Profile

  4. Sergio Felix Reply January 9, 2012 at 10:45 am

     

    Hi Brankica (and Lisa),

    The first service I heard about cloaking was bitly and I never quite got it, as I was trying to hide the affiliate URL (not that much tracking at the time) and the URL appeared in the open whenever I tweeted, so it was kind of useless for that matter.

    I also remember that MANY times bitly wasn’t redirecting at all (as if the service was down) so I freaked out and stopped using them for affiliate links.

    Whether is Facebook, Twitter, a PDF report, whatever it is, I’d like to be able to track and cloak from one single place.

    My take on this is using something like LinkTrackr (don’t have free accounts anymore).

    I’m not saying these guys are the safest bet, since we all know that companies disappear but there are some big names supporting this service.

    I was wondering if any of you have any prior experience with them and what’s your take on this.

    Thanks in advance,
    Sergio

    PS. I could ask my mentor or a few pro marketing friends but I already know they are going to tell me is the best thing since slice bread so that kind of advice is useless to me.
    Sergio Felix recently posted..Digital Nomads and MinimalismMy Profile

  5. Thomas Reply January 9, 2012 at 12:44 pm

     

    Hi Pit.

    Congratulation with your first guest post here on Lisa’s great blog. As always you have been learning me something new :-) I have never really thought much about which service too use. As long as it was working and it was for free I was happy. I have mostly been using tinyurl and bit.ly but have never really been thinking much about tracking clicks or customizing my links.
    Thank you for teaching me once again Brankica :-)
    Thomas recently posted..My Google Analytics Stats for Q4 2011My Profile

    • Brankica Reply January 9, 2012 at 1:29 pm

       

      Thomas, thanks so much for the support (BTW love that comment on Google+, means the world to me). I started with Tiny.url when I first got into this, then moved to bit.ly but now I like Clicky and Google more cause I just find them so easy to use. Let me know if you test them all, which one you plan to stick with :)

  6. Pranjal Reply January 9, 2012 at 12:51 pm

    Well i always prefer Goog.gl it’s fast and damn easy to use and previously used bit.ly it’s also good…but now i’m on google ;)

  7. DiTesco Reply January 9, 2012 at 12:55 pm

     

    This is great Brankica and I was not aware that “clciky” had their own shortener too. My favorite is su.pr and ow.ly (because of Hootsuite) and depending on whether I am tracking a campaign or not, bit.ly.

    Now what really caught my attention was SimpleUrls. I use it on on my site and I have already heard some weird stuff about it. My links appear to be still working so this is where I am a bit confused. When you say “it stopped working” does that mean that the links where not redirecting properly or something else?
    DiTesco recently posted..How To Find WordPress Plugins That Affect Your Sites Performance?My Profile

  8. Kevin Reply January 9, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    Great Article! Lisa
    Thanks for Sharing!!!
    Kevin recently posted..Lesson #2: Promote Your Blog PostsMy Profile

  9. Sunil l Entrepreneurship & Personal Finance Reply January 9, 2012 at 2:33 pm

     

    Thanks for a precise and effective list Bran. Although I do not use any right now, I am sure I will refer back when I go full fledge on social media.

    Good to see you on 2CW
    Sunil l Entrepreneurship & Personal Finance recently posted..The Correct Way to Edit a Blog Post: Avoid Search Engine PenaltiesMy Profile

  10. Dennis Reply January 9, 2012 at 3:14 pm

    Bad news about Simple URLs :( I’m using that since some months now (actually because of your advice :) ) , I see is still working on my blog, but now I’m thinking it would be good to change them, the bad thing is that some of my reports that people have, already have the aff links like that

  11. Rick Reply January 9, 2012 at 3:55 pm

     

    You could also use a plugin (for WordPress sites) like MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate to post shorter links using your domain name. So you url will look something like this instead:

    mywebsite.com/thesis

    And it will redirect to your affiliate offer. It’s not as short as the url shortener links but you get tracking in your admin panel and can convert keywords to links throughout your entire site with a couple of clicks.
    Rick recently posted..Using Twitter In Your Job SearchMy Profile

    • Brankica Reply January 10, 2012 at 10:45 am

       

      There are a lot of plugins that do that, like the two I mentioned, the one you mention and several more, but there is always a risk of plugin breaking or colliding with another one. After mine broke, I just decided not to use plugins for this anymore.

  12. doug_eike Reply January 9, 2012 at 10:01 pm

     

    Great advice, as always! I use Bit.ly, but I was unaware of some the subtleties you point out. Thanks for the tips!

  13. Doug Gene Reply January 9, 2012 at 11:19 pm

    Thanks, Lisa. I’m not experienced in using these shorteners, though it would clean up a lot of site. Thanks for passing this info on.
    Doug Gene recently posted..Rocky Mountain Trail Coupon Code and ReviewMy Profile

  14. Jane | Problogging Success Reply January 10, 2012 at 1:33 am

     

    Hey Brankica,

    So glad to see you here. And thanks for such an amazing topic to discuss. I’m a fan of bit.ly, since its kinda universal – almost all services have an option to choose bit.ly from the drop down lol – may be that’s why.

    I would hesitate a bit with using plugins to shorten, unless they are robust (but there’s no way you can say); may be premium ones like Pretty link pro may be robust but still who knows?

    I just came to know that Shareasale has a shorterner. Great!

    Jane.
    Jane | Problogging Success recently posted..Content Marketing: Success Strategies To Market Your BlogMy Profile

  15. Wordpress_tutorials Reply January 10, 2012 at 6:45 am

     

    I use Bitly myself, mainly to track my twitter hits. could use a better wordpress plugin than post views. any suggestions?
    WordPress_tutorials recently posted..Uppsite WordPress Mobile plugin – The best mobile / Pad plugin to use for your website in 2012My Profile

  16. Eddie Gear Reply January 10, 2012 at 8:12 am

    I’ve been using Su.pr for quite some time and find it very useful in terms of offering analytics.
    Eddie Gear recently posted..5 Things Bloggers Should Not Do In The First Month Of BloggingMy Profile

  17. Robert Reply January 10, 2012 at 1:39 pm

     

    There’s simply tons of these URL shorteners these days, and you’ve just made me discover a few new ones now!
    They are very handy though, especially for tracking your links, however I’m quite hesitant about clicking them on sites that I’m not familiar with as they can often be covering up dangerous and malicious links
    Robert recently posted..Hesham Zebida – (Famous Bloggers) InterviewMy Profile

  18. Ileane Reply January 10, 2012 at 10:05 pm

     

    Hi Brankica, great seeing you guest posting here. You just gave me a great lesson on url shorteners. Have you ever tried one called awe.sm – I found out about it from using Timely to schedule my Tweets. It has analytics. Let me know if you think it will work for the affiliates redirects. Thanks!
    Ileane recently posted..Blog Engage Membership Giveaway on Basic Blog TipsMy Profile

  19. Social Factory Reply January 11, 2012 at 12:52 am

     

    Yes I have.. but I have a really weird issue.. My page ends with .ASPX and I want it to end with .HTML now what should I do to make it happen ? make another page and redirect it ? or give the same page a different URL ? wouldn’t that effect the indexing !!
    Social Factory recently posted..iPhone Applications Development Company – SocialfactoryMy Profile

  20. Dean Saliba Reply January 11, 2012 at 10:16 am

     

    I’ve been using the GoCodes plugin for a number of years and I am very happy with it, would any of the services you mention in your post be better than this plugin?
    Dean Saliba recently posted..Yes, I Quit My Job to Earn Passive Income While Sitting on the Beach All Day!My Profile

    • Brankica Reply January 11, 2012 at 3:04 pm

       

      I would not be able to answer it cause I haven’t tried that plugin so I don’t know how it works. Sorry. I do know that any plugin can break, there is always a possibility, so I try to avoid them.

  21. John Garrett Reply January 11, 2012 at 12:33 pm

     

    I don’t do much affiliate linking, but I stopped using Ow.ly because I discovered that when you add a picture using it then it doesn’t get added to your Twitter profile gallery.

    I’ve used Su.pr and bit.ly pretty much, though. At least for my Tweet Old Post and Buffering.

    Man, I remember when TinyURL was king of the hill…
    John Garrett recently posted..Monday Comics – Fantasy Comic THE EVER ZONE pt 5My Profile

  22. Aniket Reply January 12, 2012 at 2:45 am

     

    So which do you think is better? I am currently using bit.ly. I always wanted to try su.pr, as my blog gets a decent traffic from StumbleUpon but didn’t know from where to access it.
    Aniket recently posted..Get A Free Website For Your Business in 2012My Profile

  23. Vimal Dwivedi Reply January 12, 2012 at 5:41 am

     

    I have been using bit.ly and tinyurl , for shorting url’s and these are really great toots,
    bit.ly also integrate with Facebook page so this is the best for mew..
    whats your favorite tool ??
    Vimal Dwivedi recently posted..Know The Web # 2 : 5 PTC Sites That Really Pays !My Profile

  24. Kharim Tomlinson Reply January 12, 2012 at 9:01 am

     

    I have used Bit.Ly most of the times, this is because I have the option to customize my links :)

    Great post Brankica and thanks for the heads up on the other URL shortners
    Kharim Tomlinson recently posted..Ad Site Links: A Way To Enhance The Outcomes Of PPC EffortsMy Profile

  25. Enrico Reply January 13, 2012 at 9:00 am

    I have been using Bit.ly in the past and have served me a lot in making my long blog post URLs a short one. I didn’t know that Google has a shortener too. I might check that one to see if i can make a customized short url.
    Enrico recently posted..homes for saleMy Profile

  26. Adeline Reply January 14, 2012 at 5:39 am

     

    Nice list of resources Brankica. I’ve been using Pretty links and am comfortable with it. But i certainly did not know about the Share-a-sale shortener. Happy to have picked up something new from here.
    Adeline recently posted..How to Reinstall Internet Explorer 9 in Windows 7My Profile

  27. Brian D. Hawkins Reply January 14, 2012 at 8:06 am

     

    Great topic Brankica, I’ve had my own link tracker/short URL service for a few years so I just use mine.

    There’s a bit of a trust issue when it comes to Short URLs. It seems to be less of an issue now but I really hesitate to click something like a shortened link on a Twitter profile. Unless it’s someone you already know, you just never know what trouble you’re going to find on the other end. I guess there’s just certain places that shortened links look suspicious.
    Brian D. Hawkins recently posted..Personal Branding: Discovering and Changing Your Search Engine PresenceMy Profile

    • Brankica Reply January 15, 2012 at 11:12 pm

       

      I do the same with twitter links, unless it is someone I know, I don’t click much. But in the world of niche sites where not many people are as internet savvy as us that spend 24 hrs a day online, people don’t even think twice before clicking on a link.

      PS I use my hubby for all my “normal people internet behavior” research :)

  28. LavaLand Reply January 14, 2012 at 9:20 am

    Nice post. I’ve been using the Stumbleupon shortener for awhile, for the reason you outlined. I had no idea that Clickback was disabled my so many URL shorteners!
    LavaLand recently posted..How You Can Use Technology To Plan EventsMy Profile

  29. Hajra Reply January 14, 2012 at 3:53 pm

     

    Hey Brankica,

    Can you be any more wonderful ;)

    I haven’t needed URL shorteners, but like you mention, we will be needing it some day.

    But this has been an awesome resource. Every time I read your posts, I am enlightened.
    Hajra recently posted..Will they call you over for a bloggers party?My Profile

  30. Clara Reply January 15, 2012 at 12:03 am

    I’ve been using Gocodes for a couple years now with good results. No analytics but, but it’s great for masking links.
    Clara recently posted..The Link Between Antioxidants and CancerMy Profile

  31. Iain Reply January 15, 2012 at 2:35 am

    Thanks for this, I am so grateful for Click.Me. I’ve been using TinyURL for which there is no tracking and I’ve found the Google one shuts links down after a certain time.

    Bit.ly of course being the enemy of affiliate marketers due to their Clickbank policy, which I only figured out when a subscriber pointed it out to me :(
    Iain recently posted..Learn Affiliate MarketingMy Profile

  32. Wordpress_plugins Reply January 15, 2012 at 5:31 pm

     

    I like Bitly myself, its annoying not being able to track my twitter hits without it
    WordPress_plugins recently posted..Generate 1000s of backlinks with the webs most powerful search engine optimisation toolMy Profile

  33. Lemuel Reply January 16, 2012 at 12:14 am

     

    I like bit.ly because it is easy to use and you can customized it too.

    Thanks for the list Lisa
    Lemuel recently posted..Movie 2012 – ‘The Dictator’ Starring Sacha Baron Cohen Trailer and PostersMy Profile

  34. Voice Cabling Reply January 16, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    I like bit.ly too but the problem is that it ain’t good for SEO anymore. Google already have regulations on these URL shorteners

  35. UNIROW Reply January 17, 2012 at 4:05 pm

    I have tried lots of URL shortener from the one which give me money when I use it until the free one. Guess what, I believe the best is still goo.gl as it is so simple and people seems really like it. Another URL shortener only think about cash and not the people who is going to use it.
    my opinion may be wrong but this is what i believe about URL shortener these day.
    UNIROW recently posted..HOW DUTA ILMU TUBAN WORKSMy Profile

  36. Online Banking Reply January 18, 2012 at 7:32 pm

    I think if Twitter allowed URLs not to count toward the 140 character limit, these services would practically disappear.

  37. Bill Reply January 19, 2012 at 5:01 am

    I like to use Pretty Link for all my wordpress sites. For tweets, I use bit.ly, since all twitter clients offer API integration for bit.ly.
    Bill recently posted..How to Make a Girl LaughMy Profile

  38. aufa Reply January 19, 2012 at 9:33 am

     

    Generally I only use adf.ly. I use it only to shorten URLs. Until now I do not know what specific URL Shortener usability.

    But, thank you for sharing this information.
    aufa recently posted..Free Happy Time with Ringtone Theme for Your BlackBerryMy Profile

  39. Dan Reply January 19, 2012 at 12:39 pm

    I have Covert Affiliate Links myself. I am not super technical, but my understaning is that this cloaker helps protect against malicious programs that a potential customer may have running on their computer.

    I am not here trying to promote it, though, I am having problems with Covert Affiliate Links and Featured Content Gallery since updating to WP 3.3.1 and I’m trying to work through it. Figured I would add a little bit of info at least.. even if it isnt that helpful, I guess. The next person that finds your site for the same or sinilar reasons will at least know they are not alone.

  40. Sandy Halliday Reply January 19, 2012 at 4:16 pm

    Great list Lisa.

    I have been using tiny.cc/ free account recently. You can add your custom URL as well. But, for truly cloaking the link I like using Pretty Link Plugin.

    The only problem with it when using it in Aweber broadcasts is that it appears as a error when you go to save your message but seems to work OK when I send myself a tezt email.
    Sandy Halliday recently posted..Making Money Online with Exit SplashMy Profile

  41. Aman Arora Reply January 19, 2012 at 10:47 pm

     

    Thanks for this list mate but I don’t really like using popular one’s because many think them as spam for example when you try to post goo.gl link on facebook it comes up with a captcha. Thats why I like to use less popular or my own url shortners :)
    Aman Arora recently posted..How To : Block a Website Using Windows Hosts FileMy Profile

  42. shaikh zafar Reply January 20, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    I’ve been using the Stumbleupon shortener for awhile, for the reason you outlined. I also use bit.ly because it is easy to use and you can customized it too.
    Thanks for share
    shaikh zafar recently posted..Upgrade to Magento 1.6 using Magento Connect ManagerMy Profile

  43. Steve Reply January 20, 2012 at 9:45 pm

     

    I have been using MaxBlogPress Ninja Affiliate for a few years now and it has served me well.

    I have not had any issues with WordPress update, and the plugin is self-updating when new versions of WP come out.

    It does a very good job of tracking raw clicks and unique clicks, with a count of each. It displays the affiliate links cloaked for you and offers keyword insertion for words automatically into your articles or post, plus other added features.

    It’s not a free one, right now it sells for $37, but I think it is worth the money.

    Just my FYI,
    Steve
    Steve recently posted..Niche Website Success – a Book by Lisa Lrby – a ReviewMy Profile

  44. Mikroautobusu Nuoma Reply January 22, 2012 at 6:53 am

    I was using su.pr for most of the time. But thanks for other links! Useful!

  45. Baric Reply January 23, 2012 at 10:43 am

    I know it might make very little difference, but ‘http://bit.ly/’ is a very short prefix for a URL shortener. It is 14 characters, while the also popular ‘http://tinyurl.com/’ is 19 characters. 5 characters might not seem like much, but it is 3.5% of a tweet, and it may be the 5 characters that you need to make it easy for others to retweet your tweet.

  46. Facebook Trick Reply January 24, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    goo.gl is my fav, you might also untiny.me to reverse effect

  47. auto news Reply January 26, 2012 at 7:54 am

     

    I’ve been using bit.ly and I used it for url shorteners when I am posting a URL in my twitter account.

  48. Cafe Amaliun Indah Reply January 29, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    nice info but Cafe so like use bitly.com, and posting to facebook account

  49. Mahipal Singh Reply February 2, 2012 at 2:08 pm

     

    nice and very informative post , it will help me. i love these small trendy links. they are very useful when you share some pic with a link
    Mahipal Singh recently posted..2G Scam-Supreme Court cancels 122 telecom licensesMy Profile

  50. Ammar Ali Reply February 4, 2012 at 1:40 am

     

    Lisa,
    Do you know any plugin which can I use to hide affiliate links . i.e MyBlog.com/go/Affiliate link ?
    Ammar Ali recently posted..Top 20 Best WordPress Security PluginsMy Profile

  51. Ramnadh Reply February 4, 2012 at 10:57 pm

     

    I’ve been using goo.gl and bit.ly. Thanks for sharing other two url shortening services.
    Ramnadh recently posted..Best Premium WordPress Themes ThemefuseMy Profile

  52. masita Reply February 5, 2012 at 7:05 am

    Thank you Lisa. I like to use bit.ly. That URLs shorteners is very easy to learn and easy to apply. Long URLs can be shown in a short URLs. But I haven’t used it for affiliate purpose, because I do not know anything about it .. :)
    masita recently posted..Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, spesifications and reviewMy Profile

  53. Saksham Talwar Reply February 5, 2012 at 7:40 am

     

    Bit.ly is so far the most used and the most preferred one. Well, I am a big fan of it too! :)
    Saksham Talwar recently posted..How to Change The Feedburner Email Delivery Time?My Profile

  54. Joe Reply February 6, 2012 at 11:17 am

     

    Is there a downside if to using a plugin like Pretty links ect? For example, suppose I use pretty links to cloak a link in an ebook for a product CJ and down the road the product moves its program to shareasale.

    Would I be able to update the links in the ebooks that were already sold with a pretty-links plugin or would it be better to create a page for each affiliate program I recommend and update them as needed.

    Lisa, how did you handle this for your ebook?
    Joe recently posted..Fitness Newsletter January 2012My Profile

  55. Joe Reply February 6, 2012 at 1:32 pm

     

    Thanks Lisa, you’re better at that coding stuff than I am so what do you think about just creating a different page on my site (or a separate site I register – say, call it “Joe loves”) for every product I recommend. Then each link would look like “Joe loves/product X”

    Then if something changes in the future, I’d just have to update the page I have associated with that product. Does that sound logical?
    Joe recently posted..Fitness Newsletter January 2012My Profile

  56. Tim Reply February 7, 2012 at 1:43 pm

    I use bit.ly alot cos You can easily share and track your links with bit.ly.its grate.

  57. Joe Reply February 7, 2012 at 7:08 pm

     

    Tim, yes but if the affiliate program changes your bitly affiliate links wont work anymore. Im interested also in embedding links in ebooks. Again bitly might not be good for that if the program changes in the future.

    wish there was an easy WP plugin for this…
    Joe recently posted..Fitness Newsletter January 2012My Profile

    • Brankica Reply February 18, 2012 at 2:24 pm

       

      me too… I am at the moment using manual redirection. I make each link redirect and they all look nice (like if you were using one of the plugins that add domain/go/product, except I do it myself). that is about the only way I don’t have to worry, especially after one of the plugins I used for this broke and I had to find each link on my site and replace it :(

  58. mobinesia Reply February 8, 2012 at 11:37 am

    thanks for share shorteners url. thats awesome
    mobinesia recently posted..Macam – macam sistem operasi handphoneMy Profile

  59. Per-Erik Reply February 9, 2012 at 6:35 am

     

    Brankica, you opened my eyes for something I have just been using without thinking too much about it. My own favorite is Socialoomph, but they may be connected to someone else. Great post!

  60. joe Reply February 9, 2012 at 11:41 am

    I like bit.ly. I started using it once I got into Twitter; however, haven’t used it in awhile.

    Don’t forget to register a domain and purchase web hosting from Speedy-Joes

  61. Hilman Reply February 9, 2012 at 3:41 pm

    hahahha I love Bitly :D
    Hilman recently posted..Meta Tag Seo Friendly Untuk BlogspotMy Profile

  62. Stela@Service Dog Training Reply February 10, 2012 at 1:24 am

    I have been using number of discussion groups and forums but first time i found here something different and beneficial. I like your topic and links you have shared but little confused about redirecting links as i never used it before redirection.

    Stela

  63. Rishiraj SIsodia Reply February 11, 2012 at 3:30 am

    These days link shortening services are increasing very tremendously as the social networking sites are limiting number of characters but yes I love Bit.ly the most its the best link shortener.
    Rishiraj SIsodia recently posted..Why Aakash Tablet is a big fail ?My Profile

  64. Joe Reply February 11, 2012 at 6:17 am

     

    What do people think about Power Link Generator? Are there any downsides to using it to shorten and pretty-up affiliate links?
    Joe recently posted..TriVita Nopalea Cactus Juice Evidence Based ReviewMy Profile

    • Brankica Reply February 18, 2012 at 2:20 pm

       

      I haven’t used it. I have heard of Ghost Link a friend of my uses that will make your aff link look like it is a link to the site itself (instead of ugly amazon links it will look like amazon.com) but the one you mentioned, I haven’t tried. Yet :)

  65. hendri Reply February 12, 2012 at 9:24 pm

     

    To get traffic and ranking at google riset seo onpage or offpage is important. that i wan to ask, is this seo off page?
    hendri recently posted..Tourism of North SumateraMy Profile

  66. BlissfulWriter Reply February 14, 2012 at 1:06 am

     

    If you have a WordPress site, WordPress provides you with an URL shortener with your own domain name. In WordPress admin, just edit your post and click “Get ShortLink”.
    BlissfulWriter recently posted..How to Research Vitamins and SupplementsMy Profile

  67. Ajie wicaksono Reply February 16, 2012 at 2:20 am

     

    Yess.. I will try this tutorial about shorteners url .. :D

  68. Pelayan Cafe Reply February 17, 2012 at 7:47 pm

    how about urlpeak there is a shortener too,,

  69. itechcrazy Reply February 18, 2012 at 9:49 am

    i do use bit.ly and tiny. url though the others i have seen quite a bit on twitter ..thanks for

  70. Games Reply February 21, 2012 at 7:16 am

    su.pr is super! ;-)

  71. Joe Reply February 24, 2012 at 10:00 am

     

    Just decided to on Pretty Link Pro. There are so many voices out there on what this topic. This plugin seems to do what I need, was easy to install and had the most people who had faith in it
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  72. insanely cheap flights Reply February 27, 2012 at 12:37 am

     

    Currently I am using bit.ly but some of the site you given looks nice too.

  73. Rahul Reply February 29, 2012 at 7:09 am

    You can even try using ad.fly too!! It can be great to track and they even pay you for using the links.. It is always better to register first as you can see the stats and have a history..
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  74. Sondra Reply March 1, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    Great information, didn’t know some URL shorteners didn’t play well with ClickBank links. I used a URL shortener service once that shut down on me; had to scramble around updating links so I appreciate the list. Thanks!
    Sondra recently posted..My Horror Story About Free AutoRespondersMy Profile

    • Brankica Reply March 2, 2012 at 12:53 am

       

      Oh I am with you on this one… Just imagine having several hundreds of pages of content where all affiliate links for example are shortened and the services shuts down. This is literally days and days of work.
      When my plugin broke I had to go back and fix hundreds of links on hundreds of pages so that taught me to stick to my manual shortening from my own domain, lol
      Brankica recently posted..4 Days Emailing Sequence – Marketing ExperimentMy Profile

  75. Traveloc Reply March 4, 2012 at 2:50 pm

     

    yeah nice articles mate. usually i use bit.ly to shortening my long url. it’s great. :)

    Travel Destinations Information

  76. Alison Moore Smith Reply March 4, 2012 at 10:43 pm

     

    I’ve been using PrettyLink Pro for years. I shorten my links with my OWN domain. I love it.
    Alison Moore Smith recently posted..PopCred Welcomes Heartfelt HomeschoolMy Profile

  77. Man and van Wandsworth Reply March 5, 2012 at 6:39 am

    When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- check box and now each time a comment is added I get four emails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service? Thanks!

  78. David Jones Reply March 7, 2012 at 6:02 am

    I often use http://short.nr/ for my url shortening.

  79. PHP Programmer Philippines Reply March 15, 2012 at 12:01 pm

    Hi,

    Great job mate! Thanks for sharing other two url shortening services.

    Daniel

  80. Phillip Reply March 20, 2012 at 12:02 am

    Thanks, clicky.me works great! Too bad that bit.ly stopped working for clickbank :-(
    Phillip recently posted..Self-Esteem Exercise: Feeling GoodMy Profile

  81. Peter Reply March 26, 2012 at 7:33 pm

    Great post on the types of shorteners and the reasons to use them.

    I’ve been burned by URL shorteners closing their doors so I decided to make my own. I tried a few free options, but then settled on a paid solution.

    I haven’t tried shortening any clickbank URLs with my shortener. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work.

  82. abliukh Reply April 3, 2012 at 8:27 am

     

    Very nice post thanks to sharing us…
    abliukh recently posted..Why Social Media Are Nescessary To improve SEO Of a Blog?My Profile

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