As if to put a little exclamation point on Saturday’s post, “Twitter’s DOS Attack (And Why Social Media Sucks)” the URL shortening service Tr.im announced Sunday that they’re closing their doors.
We marketers use different methods to shorten URL’s, and for different reasons.
While on Twitter, we may shorten a long URL just so it doesn’t take up the 140 character limit Twitter imposes.
But we also use URL shorteners sometimes to mask affiliate links. http://yourclickbankid.clickbakproduct.hop.clickbank.net is unattractive, long and kinda weird for your site visitors to click on. Instead, we use one URL shortening method or another to make those long, ugly affiliate links into something a bit more palatable.
And as such, we’re dependent on whatever method we use to shorten those long URL’s to remain *working* – if we choose a method of URL shortening that goes the way of Tr.im, our links may no longer work!
The lifetime of a single Tweet is minutes, perhaps a few days – but for the most part, a tweet and any link associated with it doesn’t necessarily need to “live” forever. Shortened some tweeted links with a now-defunct URL shortening service 14 months ago? Probably not going to cut into your bottom line.
But an old friend of mine used to always say, “Safety first!” And as such, I use Bit.ly to shorten any URL’s I tweet. Why? Bit.ly is Twitter’s default URL shortening service. While nothing is ever 100%, I’ll assume due to their association with Twitter that Bit.ly will be around for a while and as such, my tweeted links will live on, should they need to.
(Bit.ly also gives you stats on the links you send though the service, if you have a free account with them. You can see which tweets you send out get the most clicks, which is great to see what your audience responds to most. Finally, the Twitter client Seesmic will allow you to integrate you Bit.ly account so you can shorten URL’s to your Bit.ly account from within Seesmic.)
So on the Twitter front, we’re ok. But what if you’re using a URL shortening service to mask affiliate links elsewhere (your money site, blog, or external sites, like Squidoo)?
You’ve got to change those links to be links that you have control of!
You absolutely *must* use a method of shortening/redirection that is dependent on your own domain. That way you have control of the links and you know they’ll always work.
If you’re using a Wordpress setup, you can use the plugin Redirection to do just that – Crowd Mountain members know alot of the little tips and tricks for using this plugin. But the basics premise is that it’ll take http://yourclickbankid.clickbakproduct.hop.clickbank.net and change it to http://www.yoursite.com/product/ – and it’ll give you stats on the number of clicks the link has received so you can track reader’s interest and conversions.
What’s more, if you find out that the product you’re directing visitors to just isn’t converting, you can change where your redirection link goes to to test another product, without having to edit the links you’ve placed on your site or over the ‘net.
The point I was making in “Twitter’s DOS Attack (And Why Social Media Sucks)” and the point I’m making here is that you must be in control of your business, particularly the elements of your business that bring you leads, subscribers, sales and ultimately, your income.
Depending on any one (free) service to host your content or lead visitors to the “Buy Now” page will ultimately award you with a headache, at best!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree, thats why I have been trying out GoTryThis recently. It's on my own domain and I can track the links and change the target later if I like. However since my domain is kinda long it doesn't really shorten the links though.
Michelle, I was a user of tr.im, but favor your approach of using a domain I control [redacted] for redirects/shorteners. I think you'd agree that this and other recent events serve as a wake up call for those intending to build an online business on free services. It just isn't good practice for sustainable businesses.
Thanks as always for bringing our attention to this.
Hey, Michelle, I use ViralURL, they are a great service and keeps track of my clicks. You can also install an Add On in Mozilla Firefox. If you want to cloak your link, all you have to do is click on the Flag in the browser where the Viral Url is and it will cloak your link. Pretty cool!
Take care,
And Have A Good One,
Ray
I use my own.. it's easy to set up.. lives on my domain.. and fully trackable..
all a question of scale..
also have you noticed.. some of the major names are know openly not cloaking affiliate links..
I appreciate your raising this issue – too many IM'ers rely on free services….to their detriment. I have been using Bit.ly for some time now and have recommended to many others. However, and thanks too, for your recommendation of the plugin Redirection which certainly seems to have some benefits of its own – I will be giving it a try.
Celebrate Life and Live Links
Lorrrette
Michele, Why rely on any third party service when you can do it yourself using your own wordpress blog and a great plugin called Pretty Link? It shortens urls, tracks stats, posts to twitter, split testing in one link and so much more. They have a free version and a pro version. This plugin can't be beat! Dave
Later in the day… on the tr.im blog:
tr.im Resurrected
We have restored tr.im, and re-opened its website. We have been absolutely overwhelmed by the popular response, and the countless public and private appeals I have received to keep tr.im alive.
Thank god for popularity!!
cf
when i first saw cokeurl.com i thought it was just another way for them to get more press on sites such as mashable… but after reading your post, i think they might be onto something!
when i first saw cokeurl.com i thought it was just another way for them to get more press on sites such as mashable… but after reading your post, i think they might be onto something!
Hi Michelle,
I have blogged about this more than once. I use a free plugin called synected from http://www.blurbia.com/plugins/ to shorten links using my blog’s domain. You can configure a short url with synected to be keyword relevant or just plain short.
There are more than a couple of WP plugins to do this. It can also be done from within your .htaccess file (which is actually what a hosted shortener does).
If you are serious about your online presence and don’t own a short domain name, domains are cheap. And with a little creativity you can come up with a good short branding url for your short url’s.
Finally, in my post http://jedsweb.net/j/o (showing off, sorry) there is a movement by the major url shortener services to help prevent users having dysfunctional links in case a service goes belly-up. But as I discuss there, I still think your own hosted shortener is the best route.
-JEDs