Sometimes it is necessary to cloak or shorten your link. There are various reasons you do this and there are both free and paid services that allow this action.

What are some reasons you want to cloak or shorten your link?

If you want to use Twitter, you will know that to post a Tweet; you only have a maximum of 140 characters.

Some URL’s become very long when a sub domain is added and it is easier just to reduce the size by using a shortening service and make it easier for people to click on your link.

People often disguise affiliate links by using a shortener. Some free blogging sites often create long addresses. It is easier to make the link more appealing using one of these services.

There are several site that are free that allow you to shorten your link and also track that link for you. This is a very powerful tool as it enables you to see exactly how many clicks you have sent. I cloak my link when I am doing adswaps.

There are 4 free shorteners I have used but my preference is http://www.clixtrac.com


This is a screen shot of my activity in the last 3 days. I use the free version but it is limited to only showing 100 clicks.

The other three are http://bitly.com/   and http://goo.gl/  and  http://tinyurl.com/

I have only used the first 3 so I am not sure about “tinyurl.”  People have commented to me that they find the Google shortener confusing. Go and try them for yourself and send me a comment to let me know which one you prefer.

To YOUR success

 

Sue McDoanld