That depends on if you want to promote the website supplying the short url or you want to promote the actual website you are advertising. personally I want Google listing the real url and thus promoting the site - not listing a short url and thus promoting that company. these short url sites don't do it for nothing you know. like me they are not running a charity - they are there to make money. You and everyone else promoting them means they can sit back and relax they let you worry about the advertising and where your going to advertise.

Answered by bjantiques at Nov 13, 2010 03:09 PM

I'm against them for a totally different reason. When you cloak your url people have no idea what site they are going to. As a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, one of the standard things we teach people is DO NOT click on any url unless you have a good idea of where it is going. The hackers have been using shortened urls and cloaked links a lot longer than marketers have. This tendency of people to shorten their url just makes it that much easier for the hackers to blend in and do their damage through phishing, pharming and malicious sites.

Answered by pplcheryl63 at Nov 13, 2010 04:35 PM

The other factor for me is it's too simple and cheap to do it yourself, so why take a chance on some system failing? Get a .info domain name from GoDaddy and they will let you redirect 99 subdomains to any websites you chose. If I pay 89 cents for the first year, that's $.00075 a month each and if you can't afford that, you are in the wrong business.

Answered by oldbuddy at Nov 13, 2010 05:42 PM

I think that most marketers cloak their links as they are affiliate links and they are trying to prevent their affiliate credits from being stole by the given few that do that. Also some affiliate links are simply too long to work with. Share A Sale is notorious for this. If you own the website you should show your website links as much as you can for branding if nothing else. Personally, I prefer using a long link as it will probably direct the viewer to where I want them to go. However, Google will not accept any link that is over 35 characters, nor will they accept a cloaked link for their advertising program. This pretty well forces you to own your own website with not to many characters in the name as you need the page name and extension as well.

Answered by disberg at Nov 13, 2010 07:06 PM

If you're posting on a website like Twitter where you are limited on characters, use a shortener. However, if you are posting a blog or in a forum, post the full url. URLs often contain keywords that search engine bots will like. Also, many url shorteners put a redirect page before the intended site. This helps promote their own site, but often confuses web surfers or makes them worry they're going to pick up malware. You could lose visitors. So, when you do need to use one, make sure you use on that doesn't do that, like Tinyurl.

Answered by mriley08 at Nov 13, 2010 07:16 PM

@mriley08 very true about the keywords that was something i had forgotten to mention.

Answered by bjantiques at Nov 13, 2010 07:32 PM

I have learned now not to look at any website where you can't check what its all about. They could end up spamming you to death, not to mention viruses

Answered by josh63 at Nov 13, 2010 11:43 PM

I think I agree to use a shortened URL. Because it's simple and easy to remembered. Like if we are posting to Twitter where you are limited on characters.

Answered by farid13 at Nov 14, 2010 02:37 AM

Usually i use short url in 2 cases: 1 when the original url is very too long 2 when i send an affiliation link to protect my commission from steal (sorry for my bad english..i'm italian...)

Answered by zio71 at Nov 14, 2010 02:52 AM

Short. It's much easier to copy it or remember it, and you can earn.

Answered by khazars at Nov 14, 2010 08:51 AM

Shortened URL is best way to promote.

Answered by vasu2009 at Nov 14, 2010 09:15 AM

I am always getting emails with shortened URL's & I don't like it. If I'm going to visit a website I want to know exactly where the link is taking me. So I would recommend using the full URL when advertising your sites as more customers will want to know where it's leading them to. I hope this helps.

Answered by samecalkitty at Nov 14, 2010 01:19 PM

@zio71 there is nothing wrong with your English apart from you used "my commission from steal" it should be my commission from being stolen" or my commission from theft". This is an English based site and you have shown you are prepared to try and not worry if there are some mistakes. That is good and if you want help and advice on correcting any errors as I have just done let me know. I am English and I make mistakes so do we all at times

Answered by bjantiques at Nov 14, 2010 01:28 PM

For shortened URL is better because you will have records how many visited your site if you will use shortened URL

Answered by malouisa at Nov 14, 2010 05:24 PM

I have read on numerous occassions to use shortened urls to protect your link from identity thieves. With your normal url they apparently can link their name to yours so that any commissions will go to them instead of you.

Answered by gerrym at Dec 5, 2010 12:08 PM

I think it is a good idea to shorten your url only if your shortened one has in some way the ability to let people know what your url is about. My shortened url involves my name and identifies that I am in the coffee busines, its www.javajoan.com. Its simple, identifies my business and identifies me by my name. JavaJoan

Answered by organojavajoan at Dec 8, 2010 11:09 AM