Tiny URLs

[charleskirkland]

Hi Ron

Yes to use Cpanel you will need your own hosting account. Or there are a number of hosting platforms that will work that are jsut a few dollers per month. The issue is you need to have a SQL database setup for this to work.

Thanks
Charles

[tonyg]

As charles has said I use my domain/subdomain name to draw traffic and along with that I use clickaudit.com to "mask" my link. Or i'll use clickaudit and mask my hoplink and redirect them to my site. Hope this helps. Btw does anyone have any experience with clickaudit?

[Ron Berg]

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Much appreciated.

Ron

[Steven G. Johnson]

Hi,

I sometimes use tiny URL's to mask my hoplinks or
affiliate links when I send mailings to my lists
and it works well at times...

However, I highly recommend that you use subdomains
instead of tiny URL's because the click through will be
way higher.

Hope this helps,

Steven

[Chris Derenberger]

I agree. I actually used TinyURL as a test and my clickthroughs went way down. Since then, I use a simple html redirect script.. clickthroughs went back up and so did sales..

Chris

[KingUmar]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all advice that you all post in this tread about Tinyurl. It very helpful for me

Regards,
Kingumar

[bearded]

Just create a something.php file and do this:

$url = "http://youraffiliatelink.com";

header("Location: $url");
exit();

and stick the file on your domain.

What I do is create an index.php and stick it in a new directory, that way the url doesn't have to end in .php, ie:
http://mydomain.com/recommends/thisproduct/

All you need is that index.php in the "thisproduct" folder.

Hope that made sense.

Joe

[Todd Lamb]

I am a fan of the redirect...so simple to set up and much cleaner on the page. A 1 minute php or html on your domain.

Some guys that have been testing the results in the fitness niche have noticed a drastic drop in ct's as reported in their newsletters.

My .02 cents

Todd

[Chris Derenberger]

I don't use tinyurl much, mostly when I need it just to shorten links for posting on Tweeter and such.

Another solution might be to use pinurl.com. I favor them over tinyurl since you can keep track of all your click stats and they have more options with your urls.

Chris

[Philip Greenwood]

This is an interesting discussion! There are loads of hidden questions:

Are we all putting links in the same place? Does it make a difference?

Do customers really care (or know) about the 'aff_id=NN' code in a URL, or are they more interested in reason they'd click the link? (i.e. There's something they do or don't want at the other end).

Is it different in the (more tech savvy) Internet Marketing 'niche'?

Were you masquerading as the author of the content at the other end, or presenting as a partner/advocate at the other end of the link?

And for those that suggest they've got some test results...were they statistically valid? What confidence level do you have in them? Do the results suggest a general priniciple, is the result so context-ladened that it's a mere story - a one off?

There are loads of wierd practises around marketing on the web:

Long, long headlines - are these really better? (Our tests suggest NOT) Or are they just something that's grown out of a wierd evolutionary process.

Long form landing pages - is it better to have one long page, or to get customers to click through to multiple medium length pages? (I've seen stats that suggest the latter is better, but again, perhaps it's a context thing).

Johnson boxes - is a yellow box really the best way to present a testimonial?

Order boxes - are dashed lines really more effective?

Hiding the price at the bottom of the page - or requiring a click through to the order page...

So many more!

But of course you can 'boil the ocean' with tests, and never reach your main objective: Selling stuff.

We've had a motto this year at my company: 'Momentum over Optimization' - and it seems to be powering our way to much better things. Reserve optimisation approaches to areas where you have enough scale for confidence in the results and that yield enough value to justify your investment in the test.

The other approach is to 'phone a friend' - or ask a question on a bulletin board, or forum, or similar. But you've got to get really smart about how you frame the question, and how you interpret the responses for it to be any better than guessing yourself!