Online Marketing Hub

Bit.ly - An Awesome URL Shrinker and Link Tracker

Written by rajays on April 29, 2009 – 9:28 pm -

Over the past two months I have been using Bit.ly to shorten, cloak and track my links and have been very satisfied with their service. Bit.ly is a website that provides a free service that allows anyone to shorten their long URL’s and track the number of clicks and the origins (country) of the people clicking on your bitly links.

Here is why I am happy with their service and recommend you to give it a try:

It’s free
creates really short links
cloaks your affiliate and other private links
shows you the number of times your links have been clicked on and from where
shows you the origins of the visitor clicking on your links
shows you if other people have also cloaked the same URL
add the bookmarklet to your browser and easily shorten any page quickly
a few more goodies that you will notice when you give the service a try

I use Bit.ly several times a day to shorten and cloak my links to stuff I recommend on Twitter. The service creates really short links that is really helpful when using Twitter. I can also easily view the number of people clicking on my links to view the sites I recommend. Such information is important for me to know which ads and what topics are of interest to my readers. Knowing the amount of clicks I get on any particular ad or topic tells me how hot the topic is to my readers. I am surprised to find out that the top 3 countries of origins to my clicks are from the United States, Israel and Canada. Yup, Israel, figure that?

Alternatively, I am also still using my own url shrinker service Provideme.info, TinyUrl.com and ViralUrl.com. They are all excellent url shortening services and have their advantages. See what works best for you and use that.

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