Create Your Own URL Shortening Service
Hi Affiliates!
It's been a while since I've created a blog post here.
I've been hard at work on my product launch on Clickbank. I can't wait to get the site up and running!
Anyways, I've been experimenting with some new free software lately...and thought I'd share.
The software is called Yourls, and it is a way for you to shorten urls using any domain name you own.
When posting links on Facebook, Twitter or my blog I often use a service like bit.ly.
Bit.ly allows me to create a short link, as well as track some interesting statistics.
I've always been a worrier however, and got to thinking one day. "What if bit.ly went belly up?"
My links and stats would disappear!
Ok, I'm probably going a bit overboard on this one...but hey, why not take a look for a solution while I have my boxers in a bunch.
So that's when I came across Yourls. As I said it's free to download and install. You will need your own domain name, as well as hosting...so there will be some costs to implementing this technique.
Well to make a long story longer, I went out and bought myself a new domain name. A lot of marketers will use redirection services on their blog like http://www.someblogger.com/recommends/product1 or http://www.someblogger.com/likes/product2.
So I put my thinking cap on and came up with a domain name I can use...and sorry for tooting my own horn, but I thought it was pretty clever.
My name is Eric Transue....initials et. So I purchased the domain http://etlikes.me. ; So now I can create my short links.
For instance I'm always recommending Makret Samurai to readers from my blog. So, I can create a link to the 7 day free trial and it would look like this. http://etlikes.me/marketsamurai (this is an affiliate link, download this amazing software at your own risk :) ). Of course if I was limited for space on a site like Twitter I could just use ms instead of spelling it out. But I think you get the point.
So far the redirection seems to be quick and the stats provided are pretty cool.
You can see a screenshot on my blog post http://www.erictransue.com/1163/easily-create-a-personalized-url-with-yourls/ (unshortend link obviously..haha).
Well back to working on my Clickbank product...hope you enjoyed this post.
Eric Transue
Recent Comments
6
Jay, I'm really liking yourls so far. Now if I can keep myself from constantly checking stats...and get back to work! :)
Good information Eric. Thank you. I like your blog very much. I'm doing a couple product blogs at the moment, and your info will help.
Nice post Eric. Somewhat ironic that you mention this as I am in the process of doing this myself.
Hey! Great stuff and thanks for sharing. I'm going to definitely do this as I too agree that having your links under someone elses program can be disasters in the long run.
Joan, I'm glad you liked the info and my blog! Best of luck with your product blogs. I'm here if you need anything.