If you're comfortable with Web hosting and setting up simple PHP and mySQL applications, there are several free scripts you can use to set up a URL shortener on your own server, giving you much more control. In addition to easy link shortening, you can use the service with your own domain, customize the characters at the end of your links, get real-time statistics and even see which countries your clicks are coming from. Instead it is simply a pointer that forwards traffic to a different address. Export your data to Excel, text, PDF or XML for paid accounts. Many people use URL shorteners when they share links to private content, and in fact many web services like Google Maps have offered automatic generation of shortened links for driving directions that reveal personal information like home addresses and sensitive destinations like "clinics for specific diseases (including cancer and mental diseases), addiction treatment centers, abortion providers, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, payday and car-title lenders, gentlemen’s clubs, etc."[34][35] Additional layer of complexity[edit] Short URLs, although making it easier to access what might otherwise be a very long URL or user-space on an ISP server, add an additional layer of complexity to the process of retrieving web pages.
Links can always be maintained in these situations when the network share on the link source computer is changed. Users are warned with the error message below when clicking on potentially harmful URLs. If the URL of a site you manage has been flagged, please see this help page about flagged URLs for more information.Shorten links ! @sqrl_in 28 Dec 2010 More Firefox plugin is coming soon ! This should be for the link domain only; no wildcards. When the link tracking information is lost, no harm is done to the link source file itself, it is simply not trackable by the distributed link tracking services. This appends one of the two following parameters to the tracking link: url_id random_url When the url_id parameter is added to the tracking link, the numerical ID value references the ID of an additional offer URL in the offer that the affiliate can redirect traffic to: If there is more than one offer URL added in the offer, there will also be an option to select a random URL from the list.
Without taking this step, visits from emails will be recorded inconsistently. The website is just as basic it was when it launched, but it does the deed. In the sidebar click on Content » Events » Top Events. Just a Few of the Available Sites I won’t claim to be familiar with all the possible URL shortening sites you could use. URL shorteners typically work by redirecting users using a special server response commonly referred to as a "301." This tells the browser that the resource at your short URL has been permenantly moved to the full URL's location.
You can use initials for one or more words or, if it works, all of them. For example, label the company logo that shows up on each email as "logo", or the main picture in an email as "main picture". However, if it's a direct link to a resource like a document or PDF or JPG, to track this link when using Google Analytics you may need some custom tracking methods setup on your server to track that particular link to your resource. Wait for Tags: If you want, you can delay the opening of a link until the tag has fired. This will create an instant redirect from your domain name to affiliate URL. ( --> ) The customer will never see the destination URL in their browser address bar ahead of time. The bad news is that if you’re posting links on Twitter, your link will automatically be shortened using Twitter’s t.co shortener.
More » AdF.ly AdF.ly takes an interesting approach to link shortening by offering its users the opportunity to earn money by using its service. An Enterprise edition supports multiple domains, advanced dashboard features and a customer service support plan.Originally Google's URL shortener was used to pass links internally to other Google sites, but the service was expanded to include external links and opened to public use. What Is a URL Shortener? Just get everything in a bit. Now, it’s trending to see people add and sharing links on Twitter as much as possible. Determines unique and non-unique click distribution. This can break your links and disable the tracking if these are not accepted by your website. They never place a “naked” link on any other website, especially is its an affiliate link. A summary of this traffic is found in your Google Analytics reporting under Traffic Sources. To send the results to other people, enter their email addresses in the CC field.