Have you ever had a really long link with all kinds of apostrophes, numbers or characters that made it look pretty ugly? Perhaps it looked something like this:
There are usually many problems associated with sharing long links like the one pictured above with others via email, social networks or on physical objects such as fliers, branded vehicles or banners.
In today’s posting, we will show our readers how to not only avoid having their long link not work properly, but also how to create a custom branded URL for each audio/video file within their AudioAcrobat accounts using today’s most popular URL shortening service — bit.ly!
It’s too long!
If any of our readers are simply looking for a site to shorten their long URL … rest assured, as there are plenty of options. Take, for example, the following services: TinyURL, is.gd, x.co and j.mp
Well, OK; the last one (j.mp) is actually bit.ly disguised as a slightly shorter shortening service (18 characters in the URL as opposed to 20), but for today’s posting we’ll stick with the more familiar of the two, bit.ly.
Bring up the home page of http://bit.ly/ and drop your long link into the “Shorten with bit.ly” field. Hover your mouse over the newly shortened URL and click to copy. Paste wherever you’d like your audience to see your newly shortened URL and voila!
Hello, my name is [insert name]!
It doesn’t take a scientist to know that people are more likely to click on things that pertain specifically to them. Whether it be their name, their business or their interests, people are more likely to interact with links that have been customized to their audience.
Bit.ly knows what people want. More importantly, they know when they want it [right now]. By creating an account at bit.ly, users gain access to instant URL shortening; plus an entire suite of extra features, including customization, view and click-through tracking, the ability to push to social networks right from the user’s bit.ly dashboard & more!
Once logged in, simply drop your long URL in the “Shorten your links and share from here” field, click the “Customize” button and edit the letters/numbers to your liking. Click “Save” and the custom URL has been created! Hover over the short (custom) URL and click to copy and again … voila!
Click the “Manage” tab to begin searching and filtering links shortened using bit.ly and for stats on individual URL’s views and click-throughs. Users seeking comprehensive graphs and charts outlining detailed statistics per Referrers and Locations over time will want to explore the “Analyze” tab before moving on about their day.
Thus far, bit.ly has proven to be an outstanding online resource and we anticipate it remaining bookmarked by many, indefinitely.
Want to learn more about AudioAcrobat? Go ahead, give it a try yourself by signing up for a 30 day Free Trial or join one of our FREE Training Classes without signing up for squat. Already have an account? Login HERE.
Coming up next … scheduling tweets!
anouther short url service; vs.tc
Big thanks – love this. The “customization” of the URL with bit.ly is fantastic. Great for branding and personalizing my audio links.
Keep up the great work. Love you guys. C
PS. I came upon your tip from your Twitter tweets. Thanks again.