Running through my RSS reading list, I chanced upon a post over at Web Worker Daily, the 8 different ways you can shorten your URL’s. If you’ve been around the web a while, you’ll know this is not a stunning new
development. Yet, I was compelled to read it. Just to see what’s new.

While some of my marketing friends prefer to use services like TinyURL, I’ve always stayed clear from these services. Here’s why.

1. I don’t like that I am directing people to a domain that isn’t mine. No I’m not big into the SEO game. What I’m more concerned with is entering strange URLs in emails to my fantastic newsletter readers.

   With all this phishing going on, people are really wary of strange links. When I write my emails, I strive to word things so people will click on the link but if the link itself is what stops people then all my hard work has gone down the drain.

2. I can’t track clicks and this is something I don’t see a need to pay for.
3. I can’t change the redirected link.

In Web Worker Daily’s post, I really didn’t expect to find anything new but one caught my eye and that’s Shorty. Shorty works the same way like TinyURL, SnipURL and all the other services, except it works on your own domain.

As with anything that works on your own website, you need to have it installed. That’s probably the hardest part of Shorty but once it’s installed, it’s your very own TinyURL.

Shorty is a Beta script and judging from it’s inactive domain that has been that way for over a year, I don’t think it will be further developed at this point. Still, it is highly useful especially for us affiliates. So far I like what I see because:

1. Affiliate links can be quickly and easily redirected without having to edit the .htaccess file.
2. You can see how many times a link is clicked. Great for tracking the effectiveness of an ad.
3. You can change the destination of the shortened link. Which is really nice because affiliate programs change systems all the time, resulting in a need for you to change your links. It’ll cost you more than just time if you fail to change your links.
4. You can create new links that is randomly generated like TinyURL or you can create links with keywords in it. Or let Shorty decide for you.
5. There’s a nifty little bookmarklet you can put on bookmarks so if you land on a web page that you’d like to create a shortened redirect for it, just click on the bookmarklet.

Shorty is not the only game in town folks. Stroll down to Hotscripts and you’ll find a few more. But so far this is the one that has a tad more features and I like it best. It does have some quirks though. For one, it’s ajax heavy and just won’t work with my Internet Explorer :-(

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