bitly

Once upon a time I had a great piece of software that would let me create and track personalized links, like affiliate links, from my web site.  However, my web host shut down my site and had me remove all traces of the software from it because there was  bug in it that was doing strange things to their servers.  So, until recently, I didn’t have a replacement for this.

bitly helps you collect, organize, shorten and share links.  All links shared via bitly allow users to view complete, real-time traffic and analytics data. Why would you want to track your links?  It’s helpful to see which links readers are clicking on and what’s working.  Plus, the short links are much more manageable when you send out plain text emails.

Now, you can use bitly to create custom links using your own domain.  The custom Short domain is the domain that takes the place of “bit.ly” in a shortened URL. If you were to use “myname.me” as a custom domain, instead of appearing like this:

bitly.com/bOm096G

your links would appear like this:

myname.me/bOm096G

A custom short domain is a great way to brand your content across the web, and it makes readers less hesitant to click the link if it’s something they recognize. For example, the New York Times uses “nyti.ms” as a custom short domain, and TechCrunch uses “tcrn.ch”  My custom short domain is donnarecos.com.

To do this, simply buy a domain expressly for the purpose of creating links, and then change the DNS A Record and point it to bitly. (Full instructions are here).  Tell bitly your domain name, and then you can begin creating and tracking links.

Start analyzing your links here.