Drive Traffic to Your Site with a Short URL

Recently I organized a flash mob event which required participants to register by making a donation. Instead of giving everyone this link: http://www.capbigs.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=119&Itemid=165 I created a shortened URL: http://tinyurl.com/bigflashmob

TinyURL is a free service that is easy to use and doesn't require you to create an account. You just enter the long URL and it can generate a random tiny url such as http://tinyurl.com/8xognkl  or you can specify a "custom alias" which is what I chose to do. As long as the custom alias isn't already taken, you can use it for your short URL. For example, you can't use "google" as a custom alias because it has already been used. Just go to tinyurl.com/google to find out.

There are many URL shortening services to choose from. I see bit.ly used often in twitter posts because it creates a very short URL. When posting on twitter, you want a URL with the least characters so you can use the remaining characters for your post. However, you might prefer a service like TinyURL to create short URLs for posters, fliers, business cards, class schedules, etc or even for saying out loud so that someone can remember. Bit.ly allows custom URLs but does require you to create an account and sign in.

I also like to use http://goo.gl/ for short URLs. I haven't found a way to customize the URL, but you can track the clicks to see how many people are using the link.