URL Shortening tools are already in abundance on the web. Bit.ly is certainly the dominant link shortener at the moment but that isn’t prohibiting more and more tools to come up and proliferate into fast evolving URL shortening business.
But it’s also pretty evident that end users are no more interested in making transition to newer URL shortening tools, until the service is serving a valuable and unique purpose. With majority of URL shorteners facilitating same old link shortening, there are only a small fraction of URL shortening tools busy serving a solid purpose. LinkShiftr happens to be one such service.
LinkShiftr is a URL shortening service that serves lot more than majority of existent link shortening services out there. LinkShiftr is a URL management tool that not only enables link shortening but facilitates detailed Link tracking and Conversion tracking as well.
Here are some of the features, which are unique to LinkShiftr and makes it an ‘Must have’ tool for online marketers.
Vanity URL shortening: While using any other URL shortening services, we get an auto-generated short link that can’t be customized any further. With LinkShiftr, the user can replace the random identification code with a familiar name. For instance, i can refer to my website as http://lin.sh/mysite (vanity url) rather than http://bit.ly/cwdZkf (non-customizable random code). Such a feature is very helpful when you want your audiences to have an idea of what they’re clicking at.
Weighted link rotator: As an online marketer, you’re likely to be running multiple online offers/campaigns. LinkShiftr gives you the ability to use single shortened URL for directing visitors to multiple destination pages and you can also assign the weights to various destination webpages so that shortened link keeps auto-rotating as per the assigned weights to various destination pages.
For example, if you want Destination Page A to be shown to 40% of the total link visitors, Page B to be shown to 30% of the total link visitors, and Page C to be shown to 30% of the total link visitors as well, this can be easily done by setting weights to pages A, B & C in a ratio of 4:3:3.
Conversion Tracking: While most other link shortening tools tell you the number of times your link has been clicked, LinkShiftr goes a step further and also lets you track the link conversion by letting you place tracking pixels on your conversion page. It also shows you EPC (Earnings per click) in your main Linkshiftr profile to help you analyse your campaigns.
However, this is a premium feature that only comes in a Pro account ($9.99/month) so online marketers can surely go for it. For casual approach, free LinkShiftr services are more than enough.
Modify Destination URL: This is a great feature for those marketers who want the ability to modify the destination addresses of existing shortened URLs whenever they want. This feature proves helpful in cases where shortened links are pointed to a time-limited offer/campaign which expires at some later stage, leaving shortened URL pointless.
It would be great if LinkShiftr could come up with browser add-ons to Firefox and Chrome. Such an addition would eventually make it far easier for users to keep using the service.
All in all, LinkShiftr is a utility link shortener, focussed to serve several purposes of Online marketers. Go, give it a try !